Article 14. Mercantile and Other Establishments

Title 1 - SANITATION

Section 376. Mercantile establishments and restaurants.

Every mercantile establishment and restaurant shall be so constructed, equipped and maintained as to provide reasonable and adequate protection to the lives, health and safety of all persons employed therein and frequenting the same.

Every room in a mercantile establishment or restaurant and every part thereof and all fixtures therein shall at all times be kept sanitary. Floors shall be kept in safe condition. Suitable receptacles shall be provided and used for the storage of waste and refuse, and shall be maintained in a sanitary condition.

Section 377. Drinking water.

Every mercantile establishment, restaurant, and every station, terminal or car barn where women employees of a street, surface, electric, subway or elevated railroad report for duty shall provide at all times for the use of employees a sufficient supply of clean and pure drinking water, and if placed in receptacles, the same shall be properly covered and kept clean.

Section 378. Washrooms.

Every mercantile establishment, every restaurant, every office of a telegraph or messenger company in a city and every station, terminal or car barn where women employees of a street, surface, electric, subway or elevated railroad report for duty shall provide and maintain for employees adequate and convenient washrooms or washing facilities, separate for each sex wherever required by the rules of the board. Every washroom shall be adequately ventilated and heated and shall be lighted by artificial means where necessary.

Section 379. Dressing rooms.

In every mercantile establishment or restaurant where more than five women are employed and in every terminal or car barn where more than five women employees of a street, surface, electric, subway or elevated railroad report for duty a sufficient number of dressing rooms conveniently located shall be provided for their use. All dressing rooms shall be separated from waterclosets by partitions, shall have adequate floor space in proportion to the number of employees, shall be provided with seats and with suitable means for hanging clothes and shall be constructed, heated, ventilated, lighted and maintained in accordance with the rules of the board.

Section 380. Lunchrooms.

No lunchroom in any mercantile establishment where females are employed shall be next to or adjoining a watercloset, unless a permit therefor is granted by the commissioner in a city or by the local board or department of health in a village. Such permit shall be granted if proper sanitary conditions exist and may be revoked at any time by the granting authority if the lunchroom is kept in such a manner or is so located as to be injurious to the health of the employees.

Section 381. Waterclosets.

1. There shall be provided for every mercantile establishment, every restaurant, every telegraph or messenger company in a city and every station, terminal or car barn where women employees of a street, surface, electric, subway, or elevated railroad report for duty a sufficient number of suitable and convenient waterclosets. They shall be maintained inside the building where the employees work, except where, in the opinion of the commissioner, it is impracticable.

2. There shall be separate watercloset compartments or toilet rooms for females, constructed and maintained in accordance with the rules of the board.

3. The use of any form of trough watercloset, latrine or school sink within any mercantile establishment or restaurant is prohibited.

4. All waterclosets, urinals, watercloset compartments and toilet rooms and the plumbing in connection therewith shall be properly constructed, installed, ventilated, lighted, heated and maintained in accordance with the rules of the board.

Section 382. Ventilation, temperature and humidity.

Every mercantile establishment and every restaurant shall be provided with proper and sufficient means of ventilation by natural or mechanical means or both, as may be necessary, and there shall be maintained therein proper and sufficient ventilation and proper degrees of temperature and humidity at all times during working hours. The board shall make rules for and fix standards of ventilation, temperature and humidity in mercantile establishments and restaurants.

Title 2 - GENERAL

Section 390. Contribution to benefit or insurance fund.

1. A corporation operating a mercantile establishment shall not by deduction from salary, compensation or wages, by direct payment or otherwise, compel any employee in such establishment to contribute to a benefit or insurance fund maintained or managed for the employees of such establishment by such corporation, or by any other corporation or person. Every contract or agreement whereby such contribution is exacted shall be void.

2. A corporation violating this section shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars recoverable by the person aggrieved in any court of competent jurisdiction.

3. A director, officer or agent of a corporation which compels any employee to make a contribution in violation of this section or sign any agreement to make such contribution, or which imposes or requires such a contribution as condition of entering into or continuing in the employment of a mercantile establishment shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Section 391. Jurisdiction over mercantile and other establishments.

1. The commissioner shall have jurisdiction to enforce the provisions of this chapter relating to mercantile establishments, business offices, telegraph offices, restaurants, hotels, apartment houses, theaters or other places of public amusement, bowling alleys, barber shops, shoe polishing establishments, the distribution or transmission of merchandise, articles or messages, or the distribution or sale of articles.

2. The commissioner shall cause proper inspections to be made. No person shall interfere with or prevent such inspections. All persons connected with any such mercantile or other establishment herein specified shall properly answer all questions asked by such inspector with reference to any of the provisions of this article.

Section 392. Exit signs in mercantile establishments or restaurants.

An employer having custody and control of a mercantile establishment or restaurant shall be required to post a legible sign marked "EXIT" over doors to be used for egress in the event of a fire emergency.