Repeal of Last Year’s Amendments to the Requirement that Employers Provide Paid Time Off to Vote

April 08, 2020 Repeal of Last Year’s Amendments to the Requirement that Employers Provide Paid Time Off to Vote

Posted at 17:43h in Client Memos by
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KEEPING YOU INFORMED…

We are writing to inform you that the State’s recently adopted 2020-2021 Budget includes a repeal of the amendments to Election Law Section 3-110 that were included in last year’s budget. In other words, the prior version of the “paid time off to vote” law will go back into effect. This change is effective immediately.

Employees are now (once again) only entitled to paid time off to vote if they do not have sufficient time to vote outside of their “scheduled working hours,”[1] which is defined as not having four consecutive hours off between when the polls open and the beginning of a work shift or four consecutive hours off between the end of a work shift and when the polls close. Employees needing time off to vote must provide their employers with not more than 10 nor less than two working days’ notice prior to the day of the election. Employers must provide the employee with paid time off (for up to two hours) that will, when added to the employee’s voting time outside of the work day, enable the employee to vote.

The law’s posting requirement has not changed. Beginning at least 10 working days prior to an election, and through the date on which the polls close, employers must conspicuously post a copy of Election Law Section 3-110 in the workplace where it can be seen as employees come or go. The State has not yet updated its sample poster. Until it does, you can use the language on the following page, which is a copy of the amended law.

Please contact Lauren Schnitzer or one of our other attorneys by calling (631) 694-2300 if you have any questions regarding Election Law Section 3-110.

THIS MEMORANDUM IS MEANT TO ASSIST IN GENERAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE CURRENT LAW. IT IS NOT TO BE REGARDED AS LEGAL ADVICE. THOSE WITH PARTICULAR QUESTIONS SHOULD SEEK THE ADVICE OF COUNSEL.

© Lamb & Barnosky, LLP 2020

[1] The only substantive revision from the original version of the law is the addition of the word “scheduled” before “working hours.”

New York State Election Law § 3-110

Time allowed employees to vote:

        1. If a registered voter does not have sufficient time outside of his or her scheduled working hours, within which to vote on any day at which he or she may vote, at any election, he or she may, without loss of pay for up to two hours, take off so much working time as will, when added to his or her voting time outside his or her working hours, enable him or her to vote.
        1. If an employee has four consecutive hours either between the opening of the polls and the beginning of his or her working shift, or between the end of his or her working shift and the closing of the polls, he or she shall be deemed to have sufficient time outside his or her working hours within which to vote. If he or she has less than four consecutive hours he or she may take off so much working time as will, when added to his or her voting time outside his or her working hours enable him or her to vote, but not more than two hours of which shall be without loss of pay, provided that he or she shall be allowed time off for voting only at the beginning or end of his or her working shift, as the employer may designate, unless otherwise mutually agreed.
        1. If the employee requires working time off to vote the employee shall notify his or her employer not more than ten nor less than two working days before the day of the election that he or she requires time off to vote in accordance with the provisions of this section.
        1. Not less than ten working days before every election, every employer shall post conspicuously in the place of work where it can be seen as employees come or go to their place of work, a notice setting forth the provisions of this section. Such notice shall be kept posted until the close of the polls on Election Day.