Int. No. 465
By: Council Members Freed, Lopez, Eristoff, Eldridge, Esapda, Miller, Perkins, Berman, Rodriguez, Moskowitz and Fisher; also Council Members DiBrienza, Koslowitz, Leffler, Michels, Robinson, Reed and the Public Advocate (Mr. Green).
A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring city contractors to provide domestic partnership benefits.
Be it enacted by the Council as follows:
Section 1. Title 6 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York is hereby amended by adding a new section 6-124, to read as follows:
Section 6-124. Domestic Partnership Benefits. a. For purposes of this section only, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
(1) "Contract" means any written agreement, purchase order or instrument whereby the city is committed to expend or does expend funds in return for work, labor, services, supplies, equipment, materials, or any combination of the foregoing.
(2) "Contracting agency" means a city, county, borough, or other office, position, administration, department, division, bureau, board or commission, or a corporation, institution or agency of government, the expenses of which are paid in whole or in part from the city treasury.
(3) "Contractor" means and includes all individuals, sole proprietorships, partnerships, joint ventures or corporations who enter into a contract with a contracting agency.
(4) "Domestic partners" mean two persons, both of whom are eighteen years of age or older, neither of whom is married or related by blood to the other in a manner that would bar marriage in New York State, who have a close and committed personal relationship, and who live together and have been living together on a continuous basis, and who have registered with the city clerk as domestic partners, or if the domestic partners reside outside of New York City have registered with the contractor at which one of the domestic partners is employed.
b. Contract Provisions. Every direct contract between the contracting agency and the contractor as defined in this section for an amount in excess of the amounts established pursuant to section three hundred fourteen of the charter shall contain the following provisions:
(1) The contractor shall not discriminate in the provision of health, pension and retirement, and disability and life insurance benefits between employees with domestic partners and employees with spouses and/or between the domestic partner and spouses of such employees.
(2) The contractor shall not discriminate in the provision of family, medical, parental, bereavement and other leave policies that are specifically offered and paid from funds from the employer’s general assets between employees with domestic partners and employees with spouses and/or between the domestic partner and spouses of such employees. This section, however, shall not apply to benefits that are subject to plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Act (ERISA).
(3) The contractor shall not discriminate in the provision of benefits related to
moving expenses, other relocation expenses, membership or membership discounts, and travel benefits between employees with domestic partners and employees with spouses and/or between the domestic partners and spouses of such employees.
c. Scope of Contract Provisions. The above stated provisions shall apply to the employees of a contractor contracting with the city who either live in New York City and have registered with the city clerk as domestic partners, work in New York City and have registered as domestic partners with the contractor, and/or employees who live or work outside of New York City who have registered as domestic partners with the contractor and who are directly responsible for performing the requirements of the contract with the city.
d. Excess Costs for Benefits. In the event that the contractor's actual cost of providing a certain benefit for the domestic partner of an employee exceeds that of providing it for the spouse of an employee, or the contractor's actual cost of providing a certain benefit for the spouse of an employee exceeds that of providing it for the domestic partner of an employee, the contractor shall not be deemed to discriminate in the provision of benefits if the contractor conditions providing such benefit upon the employee agreeing to pay the excess costs.
e. Inability to Provide Benefits. In the event a contractor is unable to provide a certain benefit, despite taking reasonable measures to do so, the contractor shall not be deemed to discriminate in the provision of benefits if the contractor provides the employee with a cash equivalent.
f. Access to Records. The contractor shall permit access to its records by the city chief procurement officer, the city council and the comptroller of the city of New York for the purpose of investigations to ascertain compliance with the provisions of this section, and upon request shall provide evidence that the contractor has complied or will comply with the nondiscrimination provisions of this section.
g. Subcontractors. The contractor shall include the provisions of section b in every subcontract for work, labor, services, supplies, equipment, materials or any combination of the foregoing, in excess of the amounts established pursuant to section three hundred fourteen of the charter, in such a manner that such provisions will be binding upon each subcontractor or vendor as to its work in connection with the contracting agency.
h. Non-compliance. Upon receiving information that a contractor is in violation of this section, the contracting agency shall review such information and offer the contractor an opportunity to respond. If the contracting agency finds that a violation has occurred, it shall take such action as may be appropriate and provided for by law, rule or contract, including, but not limited to, imposing sanctions, seeking compliance, recovering damages, declaring the contractor in default and/or seeking debarment or suspension of the contractor.
i. Nonapplicability, Exceptions and Waivers. The city chief procurement officer shall waive the requirements of this section in writing under the following circumstances:
(1) If the city chief procurement officer, upon the advice of the contracting agency, certifies in writing that there is only one prospective contractor willing to enter into a property contract with the city for use of city property on the terms and conditions established by the city, or that the needed goods, services, construction services for a public work or improvement, or interest in or right to use real property are available only from a sole source and the prospective contractor is not currently disqualified from doing business with the city; or
(2) If the city chief procurement officer, upon the advice of the contracting agency, certifies in writing that, pursuant to the charter, the contract is necessary to respond to an emergency which endangers the pubic health and safety and no entity which complies with the requirements of this section capable of responding to the emergency is immediately available; or
(3) Where inclusion or application of such provisions will violate or be inconsistent with the terms or conditions of a grant, subvention or contract in an agency of the United States or the instructions of an authorized representative of any such agency with respect to any such grant, subvention or contract.
Such written waiver shall become part of the contract file of the contracting agency.
j. Severability. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase or other portion of this local law is, for any reason, declared unconstitutional or invalid, in whole or in part, by any court of competent jurisdiction such portion shall be deemed severable, and such unconstitutionality or invalidity shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this law, which remaining portions shall continue in full force and effect.
§2. This local law shall take effect forty-five days after its adoption.
LS#: 4220