Sen. Terrence Murphy is co-sponsoring the Sexual Harassment Accountability and Protection Act in an effort to tighten sexual harassment laws.

The law works in a number of ways to protect men and women from potential acts of sexual crimes.

If passed, it will ban confidential sexual harassment settlements and help ensure criminals be held accountable for their actions.

The act will also provide employers with greater incentives to institute strong anti-harassment policies that discourage such behavior.

Currently, people who are freelance or contract workers cannot file complaints against the enterprises or people who have employed their services. If the new legislation passes, contract workers will have the same rights to file sexual harassment complaints as anyone else.

The act would also adopt the definition of sexual harassment into state law, which means judges can no longer have open interpretations to sexual harassment cases and as a result, improperly dismiss them.

The law will be up for discussion during the upcoming 2018 legislative session.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has indicated he will release his own proposal during his State of the State in January.