The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- New York
- Level
- State
- Authority
- N.Y. Const. art. I, § 17; police power; Labor Law of 1921 (L. 1921, ch. 50), as amended
- Effective
- standing; text in force throughout March 2020 to September 2021
- End
- standing (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Workplace rulesStanding duty
- Addressees
- employers; owners or persons in control of places of employment; protects employees and 'all persons... lawfully frequenting such places'
- Character
- workplace duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: New York DUT-NY
Operative words
1. All places to which this chapter applies shall be so constructed, equipped, arranged, operated and conducted as to provide reasonable and adequate protection to the lives, health and safety of all persons employed therein or lawfully frequenting such places.
Penalty
§ 200(2): the Commissioner of Labor may post a notice prohibiting 'further work in or occupancy of such area until the dangerous condition is corrected'; civil liability in negligence (the section codifies the common-law duty); Labor Law civil penalties
What it required
Every employer and owner of a place of employment to operate and conduct it so as to provide 'reasonable and adequate protection to the lives, health and safety' of employees and of all persons 'lawfully frequenting such places' (customers, vendors, visitors), the standing duty into which the Department of Health's COVID-19 protocols supplied the content, and the duty the Attorney General sued Amazon to enforce (Ex. DUT-NY-020).
Retrieval noteThe duty runs to third parties 'lawfully frequenting' the premises, so the customer-facing protocols (distancing, occupancy, face coverings, screening) were the performance of a statutory duty to customers as well as to employees. New York's OSHA plan (PESH, Labor Law § 27-a) covers public employers only; private employers are bound by the identical federal duty in 29 U.S.C. § 654(a)(1) (Ex. DUT-NY-017).