Employee Liens (S.2762 / A.766)

June 1st, 2022

RE: An act to amend the lien law, in relation to employee liens; to amend the labor law, in relation to creating a right for victims of wage theft to hold the ten members with the largest ownership interests in a company personally liable for wage theft

S.2762 (Ramos) / A.766 (Rosenthal L)

MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION

Upstate United, a non-partisan, pro-taxpayer, pro-economic growth, education and advocacy coalition made up of business and trade organizations from Upstate New York opposes the enactment of this legislation. 

This bill would amend sections of the Lien Law, Labor Law, Civil Practice Law and Rules, Business Corporations  Law,  and  Limited  Liability Company  Law to permit an employee to file an employee’s lien against an employer’s interest in real and personal property for an alleged wage claim. Upstate United supports employees being paid their proper wages, an employee lien is not the appropriate or an effective way to go about this.

This bill ignores the myriad State and Federal laws that give employees methods to recover unpaid wages, including New York’s Wage Theft Prevention Act which allows for both civil and criminal penalties to be placed on an employer guilty of wage theft. Additionally, four separate Labor Law definitions of employer are used, which results in an expansive definition of “employer.” Many parties – including an employer’s agents, supervisors and other managers, who have no control over a business’ pay practices, would be subject to personal liens. 

Upstate United has fought to make New York State a better place to work and do business. This will make it more difficult for business owners to continue doing business in the State; as well as make it harder to attract new business to the State. Wage theft is a crime and the mechanisms are already in place to help those who are affected by it.

For these reasons, Upstate United strongly opposes the enactment of this legislation.