 Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining. We will get started in just a minute. We'll give folks another minute to log on. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining this important webinar today. I am Jose Soguard, Deputy Director for the Office of Nightlife. For those of you who don't know, we are a liaison between the city and the nightlife industry of businesses, workers, performers and patrons. We work to support the nightlife community navigating city bureaucracy, improve quality of life, promote safety and harm reduction and elevate nightlife culture. If you have any issues or questions, please, as always, feel free to reach out to us at nightlifeatmedia.nyc.gov. Today's webinar is part of a new series of courses we created called Night School, or Nightlife Industry Training and Education, which are held both virtually and in person. This is a series to share resources and trainings for owners, workers and patrons, addressing how to best engage with city agencies when involved in the nightlife community. That includes learning tips for proactive harm reduction, addressing quality of life issues, and several other topics. You can find out more information at nyc.gov slash night school. That's N-I-T-E school, and we will put a link in the chat. Today, we're happy to share with you the second in a series of financial management resources and services and workplace protections from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection's Office of Labor Policy and Standards. We know that for so many New Yorkers working and performing in nightlife, it can be really challenging to find time to make sure you're taking advantage of all the rights and resources you have available to you. So we're excited today to connect you with our partners at DCWP, who will give an overview of the rules, regulations and laws designed to improve working conditions that they help to enforce. And in case you missed the earlier session that we co-hosted with DCWP, we'll also share a link to that recording with information about free one-on-one professional financial counseling services, and some tools and tips that can help you get started with managing your finances as a nightlife worker. Before I introduce my colleague to conduct the training, just want to note some housekeeping items very quickly. If you have questions for us, please use the Q&A feature in the Zoom throughout the meeting, and after the presentation, we will have some additional time for Q&A as well. Note that the meeting is being recorded and live streamed to Facebook, and a recording will be available to share with your colleagues or other staff who would like to view the training at another time. Again, you can also visit nyc.gov slash night school that's NITE school to find information on future scheduled trainings and webinars that are part of this series. So without further ado, I'd like to introduce my colleague from DCWP. Ed Chen is the Senior Community Affairs Associate. Thank you so much for being with us here today. Ed, and the floor is yours. Thanks for that introduction, Jose. I'm just going to start off by sharing my screen, and thank you everyone for being here today and joining us through this presentation regarding workplace protections. So there are going to be a few that we'll be covering today, but I just want to highlight that as a disclaimer that what I'm sharing today will only be informational for informational purposes and would not constitute as legal advice, but we're happy to assist you with any questions that you may have or concerns dealing with workplace rights. So let me introduce my agency. So the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, formerly known as the Department of Consumer Affairs, it's our mission to protect and enhance the daily economic lives of New Yorkers to create thriving communities. That specifically means, as a city agency, part of our responsibilities is to license businesses so we license more than 59,000 businesses, such as your car washes, tobacco shops or used car dealerships. We also enforce workplace rights, like your right to take a sick day and not be punished for that and we'll focus on that in a little bit. We also offer financial empowerment resources to help support your financial health, including providing free tax prep services so as a reminder to everyone, the deadline to file your taxes is April 18. If you do qualify, please make sure you schedule an appointment with one of our tax providers. So within DCWP, our Office of Labor Policy and Standards, that is OLPS, we lead the nation on advocacy around the importance of municipal workplace rights and protections. We also enforce and implement and work on the development of a new generation of minimum labor standards for New York City's workers. As of last year, we rolled out laws with regards to delivery workers and third party apps. So there are a number of different workplace laws that we work on as well. So we also dedicate, we are a dedicated voice in city government for workers in New York City. And we protect and promote these labor standards and policies that create fairer workplaces to ensure that all workers can realize their rights, regardless of their immigration status. In terms of enforcement, there are key workplace laws and rules that we enforce so we will be discussing paid safe and safe leave today. We also enforce the Fair Work Week law. Freelance isn't free act, which we will highlight as well. Commuter benefits laws, grocery worker retention act, living and prevailing wages, wage laws and temporary schedule change law, which we will also be focusing on today. So we have outreach and education. We educate workers as well as employers and the general public about local, state and federal workplace protections. And we partner with workers and worker organizations to ensure that workers know their rights and can advocate for them. And we educate employers as well about their obligations under these workers right laws to build a culture of compliance. Within our paid care division of OLPS, we have a first of its kind division dedicated to defending the rights of paid care workers such as home health and personal care aides, home attendants, nannies, caregivers, house cleaners, to improve their quality of the paid care jobs that they do and strengthening the paid care system. We also take complaints and refer complaints as necessary. So we take complaints about workplace laws and investigate claims under these laws that we enforce. So, such as the paid safe and sick leave law. For other issues we connect workers to relevant government agencies, legal service providers and resources to help them access and protect their rights and and get the critical services that they would need. And lastly, with our research advocacy and policy development, we conduct labor market research to advance these new policy initiatives that are responsive to a changing economy and help strengthen the protections for particularly vulnerable workers, including people of color, women and immigrants. So, as I mentioned, these are the workplace laws that that we enforce and I will explain a little bit more about how the paid safe and about the paid safe and sick leave law, the freelancers and free act and the temporary change, temporary schedule change law. So, with regards to paid safe and sick leave. So if you are a part time or full time worker at a business of any size or nonprofit in New York City or you work in a New York City home as a domestic worker. You have the right to safe and sick leave to take care for yourself or anyone that you would consider a family. And your employer is required to provide you a written notice of your right to safe and sick leave. And we have that information on our website. So that would be nyc.gov forward slash workers, but also in the chat I will share with you all a link to information with regards to paid safe and sick leave. But specifically when you use you're using safe and sick leave, you're using it for your, your health including to get medical care, or to recover from an illness or injury. This can also be applied to for a family member who is sick or has a medical appointment. And you would find more information on the website as far as who would constitute as a family member, but you could also apply this leave to your job, or your, your child's school as it closes due to a public health emergency. And you can utilize this for your safety or the safety of a family member as it relates to domestic violence on unwanted sexual contact, stalking or human trafficking. And the amount of safe and sick leave that's available to you can vary depending on the number of employees employed by this employer or the employers annual income. So here on this table, if you work for an employer and there's the total number of employees employed by this employers one through four, and the employers annual income is less than a million dollars, you would be allowed up to 40 hours of unpaid leave. Unpaid leave, however, that changes if the employer's income is over a million dollar or more, where that changes to up to 40 hours of paid leave. And if an employer is the number of employees would be five or more or if you're in a domestic worker, for example, then you would also receive up to 40 hours of paid leave. And if the number of employees that's employed by this employer is over 100, then that the amount of paid leave per calendar year would be increased up to 56 hours as opposed to 40 hours. With regards to our freelance isn't free act. So a freelance worker is any individual that's hired or retained as an independent contractor by a hiring party to provide services for compensation so if you are a freelance worker you have rights so your rights relate to a written contract. So all contracts that are worth $800 or more must be in writing so that this would include all agreements between you and the hiring party that total $800 and any 120 day period. So a written contract must spell out the work that you will perform the pay for the work and the date that you get paid and you and the hiring party must keep a copy of this written contract on our website, which I will share in the chat as well. We have a spare with me. We have a model of this, of this contract that is just to give freelancers an idea so the of the terms that would be required under the law and optional terms that may apply, depending on the different work type and arrangements so we just want to make sure that New Yorkers understand that everything that is included in the contract and we suggest consulting either an attorney or a worker's right advocate. If you have any questions about what should be included or what a specific term may mean. In terms of your rights to timely payment so the hiring party must pay you for all completed work, and you must receive payment on or before the date that is in the contract. And if a contract does not include a payment date the hiring party must pay you within 30 days after completing after you complete the work. I will highlight freedom from retaliation. So it is illegal for a hiring party to penalize threaten blacklist or otherwise deter workers from exercising their rights under the freelancers and free act denying a worker future work and threatening to take a warranted legal action against a worker is also illegal and you can file a complaint with our office the labor policy and standards regarding this retaliation by submitting a complaint form that you can find on our website. There's also the right to file a complaint. Aside from retaliation so when you file a complaint with our office of labor policy and standards, they will notify the hiring party who must respond to the complaint within 20 days. O LPS will also provide information to help you find a lawyer and understand the legal process and more. And if you have any questions we have a dedicated email at freelancers at DCA.nyc.gov. And I also wanted to focus on our temporary change law today. Excuse me temporary schedule change law, where employees have a right to temper temporary schedule changes to to their work schedule for certain professional, excuse me, certain personal events. And this couldn't include a short term unpaid leave paid time off, working remotely or swapping out or shifting work hours. And to share with everyone that's participating today I also have will share in the chat the link to the page specific to to this law here. So, in terms of what a personal event with or what would qualify as a personal event. So the need to provide care for a child that's under the age of 18, or the need to provide care for care recipient so that would be a person with disability who is a family or household member and relies on the employee for medical care or to meet the need of daily living. The need to attend legal proceeding or public hearing for public benefits to which the employee a family member or employees. A child or care recipient is a party of. And any other reason which the employee may use leave under New York City's paid safe and sick leave law. So when requesting a schedule change you can request. Two changes annually to accommodate a personal event. You can request two separate changes each totaling one business day, or one change for up to two business days. And in terms of the types of temporary changes. You can propose the type of change a temporary change you would like your employer must approve your proposal or provide pay without leave. So you're, I also want to note that your employer may not require you to use leave under New York City's paid safe and sick leave law for a temporary schedule change. And your employer may offer you the choice to use paid time off as well. So those are just an overview of the laws that the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection provides with regards to workers. So if you have any questions, you can definitely reach out to us at 311 or highlight. If you have any concerns or need further details. I would suggest visiting the web pages that I shared as it relates to paid safe and sick leave. The freelances and free act and the temporary schedule change laws. You can also email our office of labor policy and standards as well. If you have any specific concerns or complaints that you may want to address. So, I'm just going to stop sharing here, and we're happy to take any questions that folks may have as it relates to any of the laws that I mentioned today. Aaron, yeah, I'm not seeing any questions in the Q and a, but I'm happy to, if anyone wants to participate. Yeah, thanks. I'm not seeing any questions myself. I'm just wondering if you can reiterate. If there's just a sort of single landing place or contact where folks can reach out to if they have questions or, you know, need additional guidance or anything like that. I'm sharing in the chat so nyc.gov forward slash workers is our general landing page for all the laws that we cover here at DCWP. And there's also additional resources for workers as well. Should there be any question arise, but to reiterate if there are any complaints that should workplace complaints that arise. If there are any concerns, we are more than happy to share, refer resources and to other and refer cases to other state or federal agencies. If that, if that that case arises, but a lot of what we're seeing is just as it relates to paid safe and sick leave which is really what we focus on here. Great thing. That's the, I think super helpful for folks to have that direct contact. And for any additional questions related to the nightlife industry or working in nightlife. Obviously folks can always contact the office of nightlife at nightlife at media.nyc.gov I've just put that into the chat again. If there are no additional questions. I want to thank you at for taking the time to walk everybody through this really helpful information about, you know what their rights are and what the city, and specifically DCWP is doing to make sure that, you know, folks can take some of those rights and I also want to thank everyone for attending today we hope you've been able to take away some really helpful information, and that you can take advantage of all the resources that are available to you. So again, as always, feel free to reach out to us with any other issues or questions related to working in nightlife or or anything else as it relates to the nightlife community. Thank you everyone and have a wonderful rest of your afternoon. And we'll leave the chat up for just another minute so folks can pull down any of those links or contact info as well. So, thank you.