• Letter 2: Hiring date hurts her pension twice
• Letter 3: Moonlighting prohibition unfair
• Letters policy
  
  The Samaritans offer condolences
  To the Editor:
  I read with great sorrow of the death of Judith Scanlon, PEF nurse and intensive case manager.
  
  As the executive director of The Samaritans, I am, sadly, all too familiar with the plight of the mentally ill who have been victims of the state's policy of accelerating discharge of psychiatric center patients.
  
  As we operate a suicide/crisis hotline (at the Suicide Prevention Center of the Capital District), many of the calls which we receive are from the mentally ill who have no where else to turn.
  
  We are doing our best to provide a sounding board to the mentally ill who experience thoughts of violence, anger, sadness, abandonment and loneliness.
  
  We hope that by listening to their tortured thoughts we are aiding in alleviating some of the aggressive contemplations of the mentally ill - thoughts which have been turned both internally (in thoughts of suicide) and externally (to workers such as Judith Scanlon).
  
  We have been in operation since 1985 and field over 10,000 crisis calls a year (all of our programs are free-of-charge to the community) and yet, the only source of funding we receive from the government has been in the form of a $10,000 annual grant from the Albany County Office of Mental Health.
  
  All other funding is on a beg-and-borrow basis, yet we manage to keep our heads above the water and maintain our services. We continue to experience a growing increase in demand for our services, one that is next to impossible to keep up with.
  
  I am constantly appalled that cutbacks in the state's mental-health system continue to contribute to tragedies such as Judith's death. The Samaritans of The Capital District extend our deepest sympathies to you in the loss of your co-worker.
  
  Mary Jean Coleman
  Executive Direct to

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Hiring date hurts her pension twice
To the Editor:
The same rule that negatively affects my ability as a Tier 1 employee hired after April 1, 1972 to apply the payment for unused vacation time toward my final average salary for pension purposes has become a double-edged sword.

I and many of my coworkers have put in many hours of overtime to assure our department's readiness for the year 2000. Several of us are within three years of retirement. And while they are reveling in the fact that they are boosting their final average salaries with every hour of overtime they work, I am restricted by the same law to using no more than 20 percent over the previous year's salary to average into my retirement calculation.

It seems very unfair that we will all retire at about the same time, we are all doing the same work, we are all putting in many extra hours to benefit our department and the state, but they will derive much more benefit from the extra work than I will.

I want to fight to have this law - Retirement and Social Security Law (Section 431) - changed for myself and for everyone else who is affected by it.

Carol Caloro

Editor's note: PEF is supporting S2074/A3562 which would allow Tier 1 members hired on or after April 1, 1972 to include lump-sum payments for up to 30 days of unused vacation pay in their final average salary.
Only Tier 1 members hired before April 1, 1972 have no limitation on the size of pay increases during the final three years of service for purposes of calculating final average salary. All other tiers have some limitation and the restrictions for Tiers 3 and 4 are most stringent. PEF will consider this issue for future legislative efforts.

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Moonlighting prohibition unfair
To the Editor:
I am a hearing referee with the state Workers' Compensation Board. Due to reduced earnings by other members of my family, I need to work a second job. However, I am prevented from doing so because of my position with the Workers' Compensation Board.

I do not believe this is fair. A person should not be prohibited from using his own labor to make a better life for his family.

While I agree that clear conflicts of interest should not be permitted (for instance, a referee should not hear cases involving his second employer), a blanket prohibition on outside employment deprives a person of moderate means of the opportunity to invest his primary asset - his labor.

I hope PEF will make some effort to see that people in my job title are treated in an equal manner as other state employees.

Robert Anderson
Levittown

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Letters policy

The Communicator welcomes letters to the editor about union issues and events relevant to PEF's diverse membership.

All letters are subject to editing for space, fairness and good taste.

Please keep them brief (up to one page, double-spaced or a maximum of 250 words), and please include your name and phone number for verification.

Send letters to:
The Communicator
Public Employees Federation
P.O. Box 12414
Albany, N.Y. 12212-2414

or email:dlacy@pef.org (Denyce Duncan Lacy, Executive Editor/Director of Public Relations)
or shalbrook@pef.org (Sherry Halbrook, Editor)

 

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