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Employee Discipline: New York

Employee Discipline requirements for other states

Federal law and guidance on this subject should be reviewed together with this section.

Author: Christine Zebrowski, Overbrook Law LLC

Summary

  • New York nondiscrimination laws tend to be much broader than federal antidiscrimination requirements. See New York Human Rights Laws.
  • New York prohibits retaliation against employees for a number of protected activities, including disclosing or threatening to disclose to a supervisor or public body certain violations of law that create a substantial danger to the public health or safety. See Additional Retaliation Protections.
  • New York prohibits employers from taking any retaliatory personnel action based on an employee's reproductive health decision-making. See Reproductive Health Decisions.
  • New York employers may limit, to an extent, workplace discussions of wages. See Workplace Discussions of Wages.
  • Employers may not administer, request or permit any employee to take a lie detector test or other psychological stress evaluator examination. See Lie Detector Tests.
  • New York employers may test employees for drug and alcohol use. See Testing Employees for Alcohol and Drug Use.
  • New York regulates the use of cannabis (marijuana). See Cannabis.
  • Employers may not discharge or otherwise discriminate against employees for engaging in lawful activities outside of work without the use of employer equipment or other property, except in a few limited circumstances. See Off-Duty Conduct.
  • New York law provides for certain recordkeeping requirements that may affect disciplinary matters. See Recordkeeping Requirements.
  • New York recognizes the claim of false imprisonment as one for personal injury. See False Imprisonment.
  • Under New York law, with limited exceptions, employers may not discriminate on the basis of a prior criminal conviction. See Use of Criminal Convictions as a Basis for Discipline.
  • Private employers are not restricted in the same way as government employers when conducting workplace searches. See Employee Privacy, Searches and Surveillance.
  • New York is a one-party consent state. See Wiretapping and Recording of Phone Calls.
  • New York law regulates certain areas related to the protection of intellectual property. See Protection of Intellectual Property.
  • Localities including New York City, Suffolk County and Westchester County have laws pertaining to employee discipline. See Local Requirements.