Senate Bill S5955B

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S5955

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the general business law, in
relation to human trafficking awareness and training

 PURPOSE :

To require lodging facilities to provide a human-trafficking
recognition training program to all employees and to post a notice
concerning services for human trafficking victims in certain public
spaces of the lodging facilities

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 amends the general business law by adding a new section 205
to provide that every lodging facility shall require all employees to
undergo a human trafficking recognition training program to provide
training in the recognition of a human trafficking victim as defined
in section 483-aa of the social services law. The training program,
which shall be approved by the Division of Criminal Justice Services
(DCJS) and the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) in
consultation with the New York State Interagency Task Force on Human
Trafficking (State Interagency Task Force), may be developed by a
federal, state, or non-profit organization and may be incorporated as
part of the lodging facility's existing training programs or may be
provided by organizations or providers identified by the commissioner
              

of DCJS or OTDA, provided that the training includes the requirements
set forth in this section. Lodging facility is defined as any hotel,
motel, motor court, apartment hotel, resort, inn, boarding house,
rooming house or lodging house. The section also requires every keeper
of a lodging facility to post in plain view and in a conspicuous place
and manner in the lobby and in the public restrooms a notice developed
by O TDA in consultation with the State Interagency Task Force which
shall include the national human trafficking hotline telephone number.

Section 2 provides the effective date.

 JUSTIFICATION :

We know that human trafficking is a $32 billion industry. We also have
learned that young girls and boys are being victimized in our state,
in our neighborhoods, whether urban, suburban, or rural, and
regardless of socio-economic level. Yet even though trafficking
victims may be among us, we do not see them.

According to the Polaris Project, trafficking networks often rely on
legitimate businesses, such as hotels, to sustain their illegal
operations. Hotels may be used to house victims while in transit or
for the purchase and sale of victims' forced services, with
traffickers running their business out of hotel rooms. The
traffickers' ability to pay for rooms in cash or to change rooms or
hotel locations on a frequent basis can make it easy for traffickers
to avoid detection and purchasers of sex can take advantage of the
anonymity that buying sex in a hotel room can provide. According to
ECPAT-USA, service providers and law enforcement agencies report when
asked that almost every single trafficked victim with whom they came
in contact had been exploited at one point in a hotel.

Traffickers capitalize on the lack of awareness on the part of hotel
staff, managers and executives who often do not know what to look for
or what questions to ask or are unaware that human trafficking can
occur at their hotels.

Yet some in the hotel industry have realized that the criminal
activity taking place in hotels presents a great risk to the safety
and security of a hotel's legitimate customers as well as to the
safety and security of the hotel's business, in addition to
recognizing that the traffickers and the hotels that permit their
properties to be utilized by traffickers to ply their trade must be
held accountable. International Marriott, which includes the Ritz
Carlton, Westin and Sheraton Hotels, through its social responsibility
program, has been training its employees on how to recognize human
trafficking victims since 2011. The Wyndham Hotel Group, Hyatt Hotels
Corporation, Hilton and Starwood Hotels and Resorts have also been
reported to have begun training. See Combatting Human Trafficking in
the Hotel Industry, by Bradley Myles, The Blog, The Huffington Post,
July 22,2016.

States too, have begun to understand the importance of utilizing the
hotel industry to end human trafficking. Legislation to require hotels
to train their employees and to post a notice regarding human
trafficking, similar to this bill, was introduced in California
earlier this year. Georgia enacted a law in 2013 requiring the posting
of notices in hotels as well as bars, adult entertainment businesses,
bus stations, truck stops and airports, among other venues.

We have, by enacting legislation last year that requires hospitals and
other medical facilities to provide human trafficking recognition
training to their personnel, already recognized that educating the
people who are most likely to see or come into contact with children
and young women and men who are being sexually exploited to recognize
signs that they are trafficking victims is critical to ending human
trafficking in New York. With this legislation, the hotel industry can
assume the central role it naturally plays not only in responding to
modern day slavery but also in preventing it. We must take this next
step towards helping human trafficking victims escape their lives of
violence and enslavement.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

New bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None to the State.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it
shall have become a law; provided, however, that effective
immediately, the commissioners of DCJS and OTDA may make regulations
and take other actions necessary to implement this act on its
effective date.

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S5955A

SPONSOR: HAMILTON
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the general business law, in relation
to human trafficking awareness and training

 
PURPOSE:

To require lodging facilities to provide a human-trafficking recognition
training program to all employees and to post a notice concerning
services for human trafficking victims in certain public spaces of the
lodging facilities

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends the general business law by adding a new section 205 to
provide that every lodging facility shall require all employees who are
likely to interact or come into contact with guests to undergo a human
trafficking recognition training program to provide training in the
recognition of a human trafficking victim as defined in section 483-aa
of the social services law. The training program, which shall be
              

approved by the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) and the
Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) in consultation
with the New York State Interagency Task Force on Human Trafficking
(State Interagency Task Force), may be developed by a federal, state, or
non-profit organization and may be incorporated as part of the lodging
facility's existing training programs or may be provided by organiza-
tions or providers identified by the commissioner of DCJS or OTDA,
provided that the training includes the requirements set forth in this
section.

Lodging facility is defined as any inn, hotel, motel, motor court or
other establishment that provides lodging to transient guests, but shall
not include those establishments treated as a dwelling unit or ones
located within a building that has five or less rooms for rent or hire
and is occupied as a residence for the owner.

This section stipulates that training shall take place on the premises
of such lodging facility and be considered compensable time. It further
requires that every keeper of each lodging facility shall maintain
records of all employees required to undergo human trafficking recogni-
tion training.

The section also requires every keeper of a lodging facility to post in
plain view and in a conspicuous place and manner in the public rest-
rooms, and, if practicable, in the individual guest rooms and near the
public entrance or other conspicuous place in plain sight of the guests
and employees, a notice developed by OTDA in consultation with the State
Interagency Task Force which shall include the national human traffick-
ing hotline telephone number. The internet reservation websites for such
lodging facilities shall display, if practicable, the same notice.

Section 2 provides the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

We know that human trafficking is a $32 billion industry. We also have
learned that young girls and boys are being victimized in our state, in
our neighborhoods, whether urban, suburban, or rural, and regardless of
socioeconomic level. Yet even though trafficking victims may be among
us, we do not see them.

According to the Polaris Project, trafficking networks often rely on
legitimate businesses, such as hotels, to sustain their illegal oper-
ations. Hotels may be used to house victims while in transit or for the
purchase and sale of victims' forced services, with traffickers running
their business out of hotel rooms. The traffickers' ability to pay for
rooms in cash or to change rooms or hotel locations on a frequent basis
can make it easy for traffickers to avoid detection and purchasers of
sex can take advantage of the anonymity that buying sex in a hotel room
can provide. According to ECPAT-USA, service providers and law enforce-
ment agencies report when asked that almost every single trafficked
victim with whom they came in contact had been exploited at one point in
a hotel.

Traffickers capitalize on the lack of awareness on the part of hotel
staff, managers and executives who often do not know what to look for or
what questions to ask or are unaware that human trafficking can occur at
their hotels.

Yet some in the hotel industry have realized that the criminal activity
taking place in hotels presents a great risk to the safety and security
of a hotel's legitimate customers as well as to the safety and security
of the hotel's business, in addition to recognizing that the traffickers
and the hotels that permit their properties to be utilized by traffick-
ers to ply their trade must be held accountable. International Marriott,
which includes the Ritz Carlton, Westin and Sheraton Hotels, through its
social responsibility program, has been training its employees on how to
recognize human trafficking victims since 2011. The Wyndham Hotel Group,
Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Hilton and Starwood Hotels and Resorts have
also been reported to begin training. See Combatting Human Trafficking
in the Hotel Industry, by Bradley Myles, The Blog, The Huffington Post,
and July 22, 2016.

States too, have begun to understand the importance of utilizing the
hotel industry to end human trafficking. Legislation to require hotels
to train their employees and to post a notice regarding human traffick-
ing, similar to this bill, was introduced in California earlier this
year. Georgia enacted a law in 2013 requiring the posting of notices in
hotels as well as bars, adult entertainment businesses, bus stations,
truck stops and airports, among other venues.

We have, by enacting legislation last year that requires hospitals and
other medical facilities to provide human trafficking recognition train-
ing to their personnel, already recognized that educating the people who
are most likely to see or come into contact with children and young
women and men who are being sexually exploited to recognize signs that
they are trafficking victims is critical to ending human trafficking in
New York. With this legislation, the hotel industry can assume the
central role it naturally plays not only in responding to modern day
slavery but also in preventing it. We must take this next step towards
helping human trafficking victims escape their lives of violence and
enslavement.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the State.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it
shall have become a law; provided, however, that effective immediately,
the commissioners of DCJS and OTDA may make regulations and take other
actions necessary to implement this act on its effective date.