2023 New York Laws › GBS - General Business › Article 11 - Employment Agencies. › 171 - Definitions.

§ 171. Definitions. Whenever used in this article:
1.  "Commissioner"  means  the industrial commissioner of the state of
New York, except that in the application of this article to the city  of
New  York  the  term  "commissioner"  means the commissioner of consumer
affairs of such city.
2. a. "Employment agency" means any person  (as  hereinafter  defined)
who, for a fee, procures or attempts to procure:
(1)  employment  or  engagements  for  persons  seeking  employment or
engagements, or
(2) employees for employers seeking the services of employees.
b. "Employment  agency"  shall  include  any  person  engaged  in  the
practice  of  law  who  regularly  and  as part of a pattern of conduct,
directly or indirectly, recruits, supplies, or  attempts  or  offers  to
recruit  or  supply,  an  employee  who  resides outside the continental
United States (as defined in section one hundred eighty-four-a  of  this
article)  for  employment  in  this  state  and  who  receives  a fee in
connection with the arrangement for the admission into this  country  of
such workers for employment.
c.  "Employment  agency"  shall  include  any  person  who, for a fee,
renders vocational guidance or counselling services and who directly  or
indirectly:
(1)  procures or attempts to procure or represents that he can procure
employment or engagements for persons seeking employment or engagements;
(2) represents that he has access, or has the capacity to gain access,
to jobs not otherwise available to those not purchasing his services; or
(3) provides information or service of any kind purporting to promote,
lead to or result in employment for  the  applicant  with  any  employer
other than himself.
d.  "Employment  agency"  shall  include  any nurses' registry and any
theatrical employment agency (as hereinafter defined).
e. "Employment agency" shall not include: (1)  any  employment  bureau
conducted  by a duly incorporated bar association, hospital, association
of registered professional nurses, registered medical institution, or by
a duly incorporated association or society of professional engineers, or
by a duly incorporated association or society of land surveyors, or by a
duly incorporated association or society of registered  architects;  (2)
any  speakers'  bureau  as defined in subdivision eleven hereof; (3) any
organization operated by or under the exclusive control  of  a  bonafide
nonprofit    educational,    religious,   charitable   or   eleemosynary
institution. (4) any person, firm, corporation or  organization  defined
and  regulated  by  sections  one hundred ninety-one through one hundred
ninety-three of this chapter.
3. "Fee" means  anything  of  value,  including  any  money  or  other
valuable  consideration  charged,  collected, received, paid or promised
for any service, or act rendered or to  be  rendered  by  an  employment
agency,  including  but  not limited to money received by such agency or
its emigrant agent which  is  more  than  the  amount  paid  by  it  for
transportation,  transfer  of baggage, or board and lodging on behalf of
any applicant for employment.
4. "Agency manager" means the person designated by the applicant for a
license who is responsible  for  the  direction  and  operation  of  the
placement  activities  of  the  agency  at  the  premises covered by the
license.
5. "Placement employee"  shall  mean  any  agency  manager,  director,
counsellor,  interviewer,  or any other person employed by an employment
agency  who  spends  a  substantial  part  of  his  time   interviewing,
counselling  or  conferring  with  job  applicants  or employers for the
purpose of placing or procuring job applicants, but  shall  not  include

employees  of an employment agency who are primarily engaged in clerical
occupations.
6.  "Nurses'  registry" means any employment agency, bureau, office or
other  place  which  procures  or  attempts  to  procure  employment  or
engagements   for  nurses  licensed  pursuant  to  article  one  hundred
thirty-nine of the education law as a registered professional  nurse  or
licensed practical nurse.
7.  "Person"  means  any  individual,  company,  society, association,
corporation, manager, contractor,  subcontractor,  partnership,  bureau,
agency, service, office or the agent or employee of the foregoing.
8.  "Theatrical  employment  agency"  means  any person (as defined in
subdivision seven of this section) who procures or attempts  to  procure
employment  or engagements for an artist, but such term does not include
the business of managing entertainments, exhibitions or performances, or
the artists or attractions constituting the same,  where  such  business
only incidentally involves the seeking of employment therefor.
8-a.  "Artist"  shall  mean actors and actresses rendering services on
the legitimate stage and in the production  of  motion  pictures,  radio
artists, musical artists, musical organizations, directors of legitimate
stage, motion picture and radio productions, musical directors, writers,
cinematographers,  composers,  lyricists,  arrangers,  models, and other
artists and persons rendering professional services in  motion  picture,
theatrical, radio, television and other entertainment enterprises.
9.  "Theatrical  engagement"  means any engagement or employment of an
artist.
10. "Emigrant agent" shall mean any person, on behalf of an employment
agency who, for a fee, procures or attempts to  procure  employment  for
persons  outside  the  state  or  outside  the continental United States
seeking such employment, or employees from outside the state or  outside
the continental United States for employers seeking the services of such
employees.
11. "Speakers' bureau" means any person whose principal business is to
provide  lecture  business management and promotional services on behalf
of lecturers or speakers  and  procures  on  behalf  of  a  lecturer  or
speaker,  speaking engagements to appear in lecture programs established
by an individual  or  institutional  sponsor  and  who  charges  a  fee,
directly or indirectly, to such lecturer or speaker.
Whenever  used in this article words in the singular shall include the
plural.