In case you haven't heard... it's election season! New York's amended voting leave law (see our blog post for more on the April 2020 amendments) now requires employers to provide employees with up to two hours of paid leave at the beginning or end of their shift as necessary to enable them to vote.
Employees who have four consecutive hours to vote outside of working hours are not entitled to paid voting leave.
Employers are also required to post a notice setting forth the voting leave provisions in a conspicuous place, where it can be seen by employees as they come or go from work. This notice must be posted at least ten working days before every election and must be kept posted until the close of the polls on election day. If you don't already have the voting leave notice posted, make sure it is posted ten working days before November 3, 2020 (which, for many, means by October 20, 2020). Because this notice is required for "any" election, you may want to consider leaving it up year-round to ensure you never miss the posting deadline for other (e.g., local) elections.
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