Jul 30, 2020

Child care and mortgage relief bills introduced in state Assembly

Two new bills were introduced this week in the New York state Assembly. Assemblyman Phillip G. Steck, D-110, introduced A.10842, which would require employers to provide  reasonable accommodation to employees who have children who are unable to return to a child care provider as a result of a pandemic, rendering the employee unable to maintain his or her normal work schedule. Such accommodations would include flexible work hours; part-time or modified work schedules; altering the times when certain work functions are performed; telecommuting; working from home; changing policies; the provision of child care as a substitute for day-, before- or after-care programs at school, or another child care facility that would comply with guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and would be approved by the county health department. However, these accommodations would not be allowed to present undue hardship on the employer. The employer and employee would be expected to determine the appropriate accommodations together.

Assemblywoman Kimberly Jean-Pierre, D-11, introduced A.10876—a companion bill to S.8454-A, sponsored by Sen. Brian P. Kavanaugh, D-26. The bill would authorize commercial mortgage relief during the COVID-19 pandemic for a period of 120 days and would require New York-regulated institutions to make applications for such forbearance available to qualified commercial mortgagors. This would be effective retroactively to March 7, 2020, until the date on which none of the provisions that closed or otherwise restricted public or private businesses or places of public accommodation, or required postponement or cancellation of all nonessential gatherings of individuals of any size for any reason. Debt accumulated during the relief period would be considered a noninterest bearing balloon payment, payable within 12 months after the end of the forbearance period, and the regulated institution would need to waive any late fees accumulated as a result of the forbearance. You can check the status of these or any other bill in New York on our PIAdvocacy bill tracker.