The recently-enacted TIME’S UP Safety Agenda updates New York’s sexual harassment standard, extends protections to domestic workers and independent contractors, and includes new provisions that enable workers to seek justice for workplace harassment and discrimination.

To help New Yorkers understand the groundbreaking sexual harassment protections, the TIME’S UP Impact Lab released a toolkit, Know Your Rights, New York (also available in Spanish), that explains the provisions of the new law and informs workers of their rights if they face harassment or other types of discrimination at work. The toolkit also explains how this law differs from prior legal requirements.

The new law will protect millions of New Yorkers by:

• Making it easier to bring and win lawsuits for harassment discrimination claims by eliminating the “severe or pervasive” standard that kept all but the most egregious claims out of court;
• Clarifying that the New York State Human Rights Law applies to all employers in New York, including state and private employers as well as employers with fewer than four employees, for all forms of discrimination and harassment;
• Clarifying that employees who sign non-disclosure agreements may participate in investigations into sexual harassment claims and voiding any non-disclosure clauses related to any future claims of discrimination, unless the clause notifies a worker that they may still talk to a reporting agency;
• Extending broader protections to more workers, including domestic workers and independent contractors.

Additional provisions of the TIME’S UP Safety Agenda take effect in 2020. They are:

• February 8, 2020: All discrimination claims accrued on or after this date can be brought against all employees under New York Human Rights Law, regardless of employer size or public sector employment. 
• August 12, 2020: The law will extend the statute of limitations for filing sexual harassment complaints with the Division of Human Rights to three years.

New Yorkers can download the free toolkit texting NYSAFE to 306-44. Standard message and data rates apply.