NEW YORK CITY RELEASES AUTOMATED EMPLOYMENT DECISION TOOLSFAQS ADDRESSING CERTAIN LINGERING QUESTIONS
The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection ("DCWP") has released its highly anticipated FAQs, providing additional guidance to employers seeking to comply with Local Law 144.
THE FAWS CLARIFIES THE SCOPE OF THE LAW’S GEOGRAPHIC REACH…
The job location is at an office in NYC, or at least part-time; OR…
The job is fully remote, but the location associated with it is an office in NYC; OR…
The location of the employment agency using the AEDT is NYC or, if the location of the employment agency is outside NYC, one of the bullets above is true;
Even with this additional guidance, the chosen definition still leaves room for interpretation.
There are No "Pass or Fail” Requirements Built into the Bias Audits;
The Law Does Not Appear To Cover Employer Recruitment or Outreach Efforts;
"Statistical Significance" of a Bias Audit Remains Undefined;
Where Demographic Information is Unavailable or Insufficient, Employers May Use Test Data or Historical Data from Other Employers;
Employers May Not Impute Demographic Information;
"Test Data" Remains Largely Undefined;
An AEDT Vendor May Have a Bias Audit Conducted on Its Own Tool;
DCWEP is Ready to Enforce Local Law 144;
Where Do Employers and Employment Agencies Go From Here?
Conducting an inventory of hiring, promotion, and performance evaluation processes to ascertain what AEDTs (if any) are used and whether they fall within the ambit of the law.
Reviewing practices governing and surrounding demographic data collection and determining whether (i) there is any data missing; and (ii) there is sufficient data to conduct a bias audit.
Ensuring that service agreements with AEDT vendors include certain representations and warranties concerning compliance with Local Law 144 and, if applicable, that the vendor has had an independent auditor conduct a bias audit of the given AEDT before the employer purchases and/or implements the tool.
Strategizing to determine how the published "summary" of the bias audit results will actually appear in practice.
This document is designed for general information only. The information presented in this document should not be construed to be formal legal or tax advice nor the formation of a lawyer/client relationship.
For more information on this and other topics, please contact Kevin via any of the channels listed below:
📧 kevin@kmckernan.com | 📞 718-317-5007