BILL NUMBER: S2683

SPONSOR: MAYER
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the general business law, in relation to human traffick-
ing awareness and training for certain lodging facility employees

 
PURPOSE:

To require lodging facilities to provide a human-trafficking recognition
training program to all employees.

 
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 estab-
              

lished or approved by the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS)
and the Office of temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) in consul-
tation with the New York State Interagency Task Force on Human Traffick-
ing (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 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 provides that all new employees required to undergo human
trafficking recognition training shall receive such training within
their first month of employment. It further stipulates that training
shall take place on the premises of such lodging facility and be consid-
ered compensable time. Every keeper of each lodging facility shall main-
tain records of all employees required to undergo human trafficking
recognition training.

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 ECPATUSA, 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 have begun training. See Combatting Human Traf-
ficking in the Hotel Industry, by Bradley Myles, The Blog, The Huffing-
ton 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 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 facili-
ties to provide human trafficking recognition training to their person-
nel, 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 prevent-
ing it. We must take this next step towards helping human trafficking
victims escape their lives of violence and enslavement.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2017-18: S5955B (Hamilton) - REFERRED TO CONSUMER PROTECTION

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the State.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have
become a law; provided however, paragraph d of subdivision 1 of section
210 of the general business law shall take effect immediately; provided
further all employees of gaming facilities on the effective date of this
act shall receive human-trafficking recognition training pursuant to
this act within four months of the effective date of this act.