§ 399-K — Access to toilet facilities for utility workers

§ 399-k. Access to toilet facilities for utility workers. 1. A place\nof business open to the general public for the sale of goods or services\nthat has a toilet facility for its employees shall allow any individual\nwho is lawfully on the premises of such place of business to use that\ntoilet facility during normal business hours, even if the place of\nbusiness does not normally make the employee toilet facility available\nto the public, provided that all of the following conditions are met:\n a. the individual requesting the use of the employee toilet facility\nis an employee of a utility entity who is on duty providing\nutility-related services at the time of the request, provided that the\nplace of business may require the individual to present reasonable\nevidence that the individual is an employee of a utility entity;\n b. two or more employees of the place of business are working at the\ntime the individual requests use of the employee toilet facility;\n c. the employee toilet facility is not located in an area where\nproviding access would create an obvious health or safety risk to the\nrequesting individual or create a security risk to the people, or\nproperty within the place of business;\n d. use of the toilet facility would not create an obvious health or\nsafety risk to the requesting individual; and\n e. a public restroom is not immediately accessible to the requesting\nindividual.\n 2. A violation of the provisions of this section shall be punishable\nby a civil penalty not to exceed five hundred dollars for each\nviolation.\n 3. A place of business shall not be liable for any injuries which\nresult from toilet facility use by an employee of a utility entity,\nprovided that this subdivision shall not be interpreted, or construed,\nas a limit on liability for acts of gross negligence or for willful or\nmalicious failure to guard, or to warn against, a dangerous condition,\nuse, structure or activity.\n 4. For purposes of this section, "employee of a utility entity" means\nan employee of a "utility company" or "public utility company" as such\nterms are defined in section two of the public service law, a municipal\ncorporation that provides public utility services, a rural electric\ncooperative, or a state public authority that provides utility services,\nor an employee of a contractor that is providing utility-related\nservices for any of the aforementioned entities.\n