924. Violations, penalties, procedures. 1. Any professional employer organization or person purporting to be a professional employer organization who has failed to comply with the registration requirements of section nine hundred eighteen of this article shall be deemed to have violated this article.
2. Any professional employer organization or person purporting to be a professional employer organization who has failed to comply within the time specified by law with an order issued by the commissioner to comply with the registration requirements of section nine hundred eighteen of this article shall be deemed to have violated this article.
3. Any client who enters into a professional employer agreement with a professional employer organization or person purporting to be a professional employer organization, who is required to register, but whom the client knows or should have known has failed to register, failed to renew its registration or had its registration revoked by the commissioner shall be deemed to have violated this article.
4. (a) The commissioner may impose a civil penalty upon a professional employer organization, a person purporting to be a professional employer organization, and all persons or entities that own a five percent or greater interest in the professional employer organization, that have been deemed to have violated this article, for no more than three thousand dollars for the initial violation, and for no more than five thousand dollars for a second or subsequent violation.
(b) The commissioner may impose a civil penalty upon any client described in subdivision three of this section that has been deemed to have violated this article, for no more than one thousand dollars for the initial violation, and for no more than five thousand dollars for a second or subsequent violation.
(c) The order imposing such civil penalty may be served personally or by certified mail at the last known mailing address of the person being served. Such order shall be in writing and shall describe the nature of the violation, including reference to the provisions of subdivisions one, two and three of this section alleged to have been violated.
5. An order issued under this section shall be final and not subject to review by any court or agency unless review is had pursuant to section one hundred one of this chapter. Provided that no proceeding for administrative or judicial review as provided in this chapter shall then be pending and the time for initiation of such proceeding shall have expired, the commissioner may file with the county clerk of the county where the person against whom the penalty has been imposed has a place of business the order of the commissioner or the decision of the industrial board of appeals containing the amount of the civil penalty. The filing of such order or decision shall have the full force and effect of a judgment duly docketed in the office of such clerk. The order or decision may be enforced by and in the name of the commissioner in the same manner, and with like effect, as that prescribed by the civil practice law and rules for the enforcement of a money judgment.
6. If any professional employer organization or person purporting to be a professional employer organization shall have failed to comply within twenty days of an order by the commissioner to register or renew registration, the commissioner may seek to enjoin such unlawful activity, pursuant to the civil practice law and rules.
7. The intentional failure of a professional employer organization or person purporting to be a professional employer organization to comply with the registration requirements of section nine hundred eighteen of this article shall be a class B misdemeanor. The officers and agents of a professional employer organization or person purporting to be a professional employer organization who knowingly permit such organization to violate the registration requirements of section nine hundred eighteen of this article shall be guilty of a class B misdemeanor.
Last modified: February 3, 2019