Employers with operations in New York should already be aware of the new law called the Wage Theft Prevention Act (WTPA) that goes into effect April 9, 2011. Among many other new requirements, this law requires that employees are given wage and other information, in writing, at the time of hire, and annually by February 1 of each year. Written notices may also be required when wage information or other information changes; and the law imposes new requirements for wage statements. (For more information, see Littler’s ASAP.)

The New York State Department of Labor has posted on its website template forms intended to comply with the new notice requirements of the WTPA. In addition to English templates, there are dual language forms for Spanish, Chinese and Korean. The forms may be found at http://www.labor.state.ny.us/workerprotection/laborstandards/workprot/lshmpg.shtm. We have been informed that dual language forms in Haitian-Creole, Polish and Russian are forthcoming. The Department has also issued guidelines concerning the WTPA in the form of FAQs that can be found at the same web address.

Upon our initial review, it appears that the sample forms seek to elicit information that is not required under the WTPA, and in other respects might deviate from the technical requirements of the WTPA. It is important to note that these are merely sample forms, and employers are not required to use them "as is" so long as the forms they do use comply with the WTPA's requirements.