Why this petition matters

Under New York law, you can get job-protected, paid leave to take care of a family member who is dying. But the absolute second they pass away? Your protection stops.

The current legal system gives you a meager 3 to 5 days of bereavement. Then, it expects you back at work acting like everything is completely normal.

Imagine losing your spouse, parent, or child, and 72 hours later you are expected to return to a high-focus job—driving vehicles, operating heavy machinery, teaching, or managing complex operations—while your brain is completely shattered by shock.

"Grief brain" is a medically proven cognitive impairment. Neuroimaging shows that acute grief sends the brain’s survival center into overdrive while knocking out the areas responsible for memory, focus, and logic. Yet, our current laws treat this profound physical and emotional trauma like a personal scheduling problem. Why do we force suffering New Yorkers to pathologize their natural sorrow—begging doctors for a psychiatric diagnosis like clinical depression—just to get the medical leave their bodies biologically require to heal?

The Administrative Quicksand Facing Isolated Widows

This system is doubly cruel to an isolated widow who has no local family or support system. While drowning in trauma and exhaustion, she is instantly forced to become a full-time administrative investigator.

Because the system relies on outdated, paper-heavy red tape, she has to spend hours on hold with electric companies, gas companies, and banks. She is forced to hunt down account numbers and mail physical paper death certificates just to figure out the household liabilities and keep the heat on. It is a form of institutional cruelty.

The Solution: Pass S3944 and Mandate "Trauma-Informed Tech"

We are petitioning our Western New York representatives and state leaders to pass Senate Bill S3944 to explicitly allow workers to use our existing New York Paid Family Leave (PFL) pool for bereavement.

New York workers already entirely fund this insurance pool out of our own paychecks every single week through payroll deductions. We are paying for this infrastructure. We deserve to draw from it when our family structures collapse, not just when a loved one is actively dying.

Furthermore, to ensure a modern, humane delivery system, this legislation must mandate "Trauma-Informed Tech" to eliminate the paperwork nightmare:

1. Universal Electronic Signatures: Under the NY Electronic Signatures and Records Act (ESRA), digital signatures carry full legal weight. A grieving person should never be forced to hunt down printers, faxes, or mailboxes. Doctors, employers, and funeral directors must be allowed to securely e-sign and verify PFL claims instantly from a smartphone.

2. A Centralized, One-Click Bereavement Registry: New York must establish a secure online portal where a surviving spouse can e-sign once, upload a digital death certificate, and instantly notify utilities and creditors—automatically freezing accounts and legally halting predatory corporate late fees for 90 days.

If New York State law now officially trusts secure electronic signatures to sign and execute a person's final Last Will and Testament, there is absolutely zero excuse for making a grieving widow fight paper red tape just to protect her home.

Sign Your Name to Demand Dignity!!!

We are calling on our local Western New York leaders—including Senator George Borrello and Assemblyman Joseph Giglio—to champion Bill S3944 and protect working families.

No one should have to choose between financial ruin and the right to safely mourn their dead. Please sign and share this petition today to demand a more compassionate, modernized New York.