Work experience.

(2) Work experience programs may include the performance of work for a Federal office or agency, county, city, village or town or for the State or in the operation of or in an activity of a non-profit agency or institution.

(3) A recipient may be assigned to participate in such work experience program only if:

(i) appropriate Federal and State standards of health, safety and other work conditions are maintained;

(ii) the number of hours an individual assigned to work experience activities authorized pursuant to this section may be required to participate in such assignment shall not exceed a number which equals the amount of assistance payable with respect to such individual's household (inclusive of the value of food stamps received by such household, if any) divided by the higher of:

(a) the Federal minimum wage; or

(b) the State minimum wage;

(iii) such recipients are provided appropriate workers' compensation or equivalent protection for on-the-job injuries and tort claims protection on the same basis, but not necessarily at the same benefit level, as they are provided to other persons in the same or similar positions, while participating in work experience activities under this section;

(iv) the project to which the participant is assigned serves a useful public purpose in fields such as health, social services, environmental protection, education, urban and rural development and redevelopment, welfare, recreation, operation of public facilities, public safety and child day care;

(v) such assignment would not result in:

(a) the displacement of any currently employed worker or loss of position (including partial displacement such as reduction in the hours of non-overtime work, wages or employment benefits) or result in the impairment of existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements;

(b) the assignment of a participant or the filling of a position when any other person is on layoff from the same or any equivalent position or the employer has terminated the employment of any regular employee or otherwise reduced its workforce with the effect of filling the vacancy so created with a participant assigned pursuant to this section;

(c) any infringement of the promotional opportunities of any currently employed person;

(d) the performance, by such participant, of a substantial portion of the work ordinarily and actually performed by regular employees;

(e) the loss of a bargaining unit position as a result of work experience participants performing, in part or in whole, the work normally performed by the employee in such position; or

(f) such assignment is not at any work site at which the regular employees are on a legal strike against the employer or are being subjected to lock out by the employer.

(4) Public employers participating in work experience programs (or the social services official, pursuant to an agreement established between any such employer and the social services official) shall publish on a monthly basis a report summarizing the employer's work experience program for the month.

(i) Such monthly report shall include, at a minimum, summary information regarding the agencies or departments where participants are assigned, work locations, job duties and assignments, hours worked and period worked and shall be provided to the certified collective bargaining representative of public employees at such employer and may not be disclosed to any other party.

(ii) Such certified collective bargaining representative shall take reasonable steps to protect the confidentiality of such information and shall take reasonable steps to prevent disclosure of same to non-authorized persons.

(iii) Reports provided pursuant to this section shall contain a warning against re-disclosure and asserting the confidentiality of the information therein provided.

(5) In assigning to work experience a recipient who is a non-graduate student attending CUNY, SUNY or other approved non-profit education, training or vocational rehabilitation agency, the social services district shall:

(i) after consultation with officials of CUNY, SUNY or other non-profit education, training or vocational rehabilitation agency, assign the student to a work experience site on campus where the recipient is enrolled if a work experience assignment approved by the social services official is available. Where such work experience assignment is not available, the social services district shall, to the extent possible, assign the student to a work experience site within reasonable proximity to the campus where the recipient is enrolled. Provided, however, in order to qualify for a work experience assignment on-campus, or in close proximity to campus, a student must have a cumulative C average, or its equivalent. The social services district may waive the requirement that the student have a cumulative C average or its equivalent for undue hardship based on:

(a) the death of a relative of the student;

(b) the personal injury or illness of the student; or

(c) any other extenuating circumstances; and

(ii) not unreasonably assign the student to participate in work experience during hours that conflict with the student's academic schedule.