Relates to enacting the reasonable accommodation anti-retaliation act

Retaliation protections for people requesting accommodations

New York law explicitly bans retaliation or discrimination for requesting reasonable accommodations in any setting covered by its Human Rights Law. It also protects people who oppose banned practices, file complaints, testify, or help in proceedings under that law. Retaliation can include sharing an employee’s personnel files because they took these protected steps. The exception allows disclosures permitted by law when starting or responding to complaints or in civil, criminal, judicial, or administrative proceedings. These changes clarify existing protections, rather than imply that accommodation requests were previously unprotected. The act takes effect immediately and applies to legal actions filed on or after its effective date.