New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has included legislation in his FY2021 Executive Budget to expand protections for transportation workers against physical attacks. The legislation expands the type of workers who are protected and would make several forms of aggravated harassment against a transportation worker a Class A misdemeanor.
"New York transit workers literally keep this state moving and the attacks against them are repugnant," Gov. Cuomo said. "No transit worker should ever be subjected to assault of any kind, and I am proposing new measures to enhance protections for them and ensure more workers across the transit system get the respect they deserve."
Under Gov. Cuomo’s proposal, customer assistance personnel, signal system repairers, track cleaners and other job titles would join the existing list of protected titles, which include train and bus operators, signal persons and terminal cleaners.
The legislation clarifies existing protections for transportation workers while adding new ones. Any form of forceful or violent physical contact against a worker on duty, including spitting on them, constitutes a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.
These proposals build on the governor’s State of the State 2020 agenda which includes measures to make public transit systems safer for everyone, including banning repeat and high-risk sexual offenders as well as repeat assailants of Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) employees from accessing the subway, bus and rail systems. This proposal authorizes the MTA to issue orders prohibiting individuals who commit repeat sex-related violations of the MTA code of conduct, or who are high-risk sex offenders (Level 3), from using MTA transportation services for a period of three years. This proposal is in response to several recent MTA incidents involving repeat sex offenders.
