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State
workforce tracking well below past years
By SHERRY HALBROOK
It can be jarring when life imitates art. Take the film
“Honey, I shrunk the kids!” for instance. The
scenario is not so entertaining when it is played out in
the real state workforce that New Yorkers depend on every
day.
PEF took a close look at the roster of state civil
servants (not including courts, legislative staff and
state university faculty) and found the workforce shrank
by more than 8 percent between August 2001 and April
2003, dropping from 182,976 to 168,143 — its lowest
level in many years. (See graphs, this page.)
The size of the workforce has been fluctuating by about 3
percent to 4 percent each year — expanding every
summer to meet such seasonal demands as highway repairs
and the opening of state parks, and contracting again in
the fall and winter. That pattern was clear and vigorous
during the first years of the 21st Century.
But after the workforce hit its 2002 summer peak of
181,029, it plunged 7.1 percent, shedding nearly 12,886
workers in less than 10 months, the most precipitous drop
in recent years.
A weak rally did occur this summer, slowly gaining 4,944
workers for a peak of 173,087 by July 30. But that was
nearly 8,000 less than the previous July.
State services
suffering
“This dramatic loss is reflected in the state’s
PS&T unit, and it leaves many state services more
understaffed that ever,” PEF President Roger Benson
said. “But the cause of this damage goes beyond
budget cuts. Some state agencies are determined to
contract out this work, even if the taxpayers have to pay
a lot more for the work and have far less quality control
and accountability.”
Benson cites the loss of 535 state engineers, mostly at
the state Transportation Department (DOT), since October
2001.
“Overall, the state cut nearly 12 percent of its
engineers, but the workload remains,” Benson said.
“Our analysis of state Civil Service Department
reports, shows DOT has cut its state engineers by more
than 16 percent in that same time.
“But it’s spending $123 million more per year
to hand off their work to contract engineers — a
practice that’s been sharply criticized by state
comptrollers from both political parties and even by a
private auditor DOT hired in hopes of defending the
practice.
“This is no way to resolve the state’s $12
billion projected deficit, but it does shed light on why
it’s so bad,” Benson added.
Understaffing
bad medicine
According to PEF
Director of Civil Service Enforcement Tom Cetrino,
nursing is another area in the state workforce that is
being stretched see-through thin.
“The state has lost 465 nurses since October
2001,” Cetrino said. “This is a loss of 4.4
percent at a time when understaffing was already a
serious problem. The state has tried to patch over this
deficit by forcing the remaining nurses to work extra
shifts, by shifting professional responsibilities onto
less qualified staff and by hiring contract nurses to
fill in, often on a per diem basis.
“This problem is especially severe at the state
Office of Mental Health,” Cetrino said, “where
they have lost 8.7 percent of their nurses. And they lost
6 percent of the nurses at the state Office of Mental
Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.
“If the state would pay competitive wages to its
nurses and provide good working conditions, the problem
could be properly resolved. Instead, New Yorkers are
paying more for overtime and inexperienced contractors
and risk getting poorer service,” he said.
“The bottom line,” Benson said, “is the
people of New York are being needlessly shortchanged, and
we will keep on exposing these problems until they are
properly resolved. We are New Yorkers, too.”
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