ALBANY — State Senate Democrats introduced a package of bills Wednesday responding to a payroll scandal that left thousands of New Yorkers with empty bank accounts.
The legislation provides new employee protections should their payroll funds be misused and offers new avenues to recoup damages.
The shutdown of MyPayrollHR, an upstate payroll processing company, left numerous workers nationwide in the lurch and is currently under investigation by the FBI for the disappearance of up to $35 million.
“New Yorkers depend on their paychecks and deserve to know they will be paid for their hard work,” state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins (D-Westchester) said in a press release.
“The abrupt closure of MyPayrollHR has left thousands of workers across New York and the United States without pay, and has severely damaged our confidence in the entire payroll industry. The legislation announced today by the Senate Democratic Majority will help protect hardworking New Yorkers and provide safeguards against future payroll company caused crises.”
One bill creates criminal penalties if a payroll company intentionally misappropriates payroll and payroll tax funds, and allows those companies to be held criminally liable.
Another piece of legislation lets employees recoup up to three times the value of a paycheck if the processing company fails to send out the invoice.
Further legislation provides a refundable personal income tax credit capped at $250 for losses and penalties received by an individual’s loss of a paycheck, and another would launch a state study of the payroll services industry.
The new legislation cannot be acted on until the start of the 2020 legislative session, set to begin in January.