Overview
Cornell ILR will bring worker “Know your Rights” training to the Town of Babylon in support of the RWDSU 338’s ongoing commitment to a skilled, diverse, and successful workforce.
These trainings will educate workers and job seekers about their legal rights at work, how they are enforced, and how to resolve conflicts when they arise. Understanding laws and regulations covering wage and hour, health and safety, unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation, the National Labor Relations Act, New York Labor Law, New York Human Rights Laws and Title VII-Civil Right Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination Employment Act help to ensure that workers are not exploited and receive fair and equitable treatment in the workplace.
New York State’s 2021 Marihuana and Taxation Act (MRTA) provided for automatic expungement of cannabis-related misdemeanor convictions which opened new opportunities for justice-involved job seekers, but the statute does not include a process for notification or explanation of what expungement means. As a resource for individuals and communities disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs and mass incarceration, we also will provide training on the legal employment rights for job seekers and employees with criminal records.
Know Your Rights trainings will emphasize:
- Race, color, gender, sex, religion, ethnicity, age, and disability, and the other protected classes covered by the New York State Human Rights Law; harassment and discrimination and addressing sexual harassment;
- Legal right to being paid for hours worked, including overtime;
- New York’s new drug testing prohibitions for cannabis;
- How to be properly classified as workers, not independent contractors lacking legal rights;
- The right to join a union and be represented by a union;
- The right to a healthy and safe workplace;
- How to enforce these rights;
- Information on New York Correction Law (Article 23-A), Ban the Box statutes, New York Human Rights Law, and federal laws―including Title VII and the Fair Credit Reporting Act—for community members to be able to help justice-involved family and friends;
- Enforcing rights through the New York State Division of Human Rights (and other local agencies) and federal agencies- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Federal Trade Commission.
The Labor and Employment Law Program at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations Outreach Division (ILR) will deliver this training. ILR is the world’s preeminent educational institution focused on work, employment, and labor to solve wide-ranging human problems, increase access to jobs, improve the lives of workers, and inform workplace policy. The Labor and Employment Law Program, directed by Esta R. Bigler, Esq., has extensive training experience in workplace legal rights.
