Legislature passes blizzard of PEF bills as session ends in June
By SHERRY HALBROOK
More than 20 bills supported by PEF passed both houses of the state Legislature, with most of them flying through in the last, long, frantic days of the 2005 session that adjourned June 24.
The public accountability reforms sought by PEF were its highest legislative priority and had substantial but not total success.
(See related article.)
The list of other successful bills that PEF supported includes:
- A.2347/S.1217 would extend for another two years the rights of public employee unions to receive dues and agency fees through automatic payroll deductions.
- A.2351/S.1215 would extend for another two years the procedure which allows public employee unions to seek injunctions in improper-practice cases when irreparable harm might otherwise occur.
- A.3216B/S.5758 would prohibit the diminution of health insurance benefits of public employee retirees and their dependents or reducing the employer’s contributions for that insurance from May 1, 2005 until May 15, 2006. It defines employers to include the state, municipalities, school districts, and public authorities and commissions.
- A.4249A/S.2165A would extend for another two years the supplements for state pensions and certain other existing retirement provisions.
- A.5398/S.4184 would allow state workers’ compensation referees to also engage in private law practice or other employment that does not conflict with their workers’ comp duties. Currently, teaching is the only other employment allowed.
- A.6384/S.3185 would give public employees a mandatory leave of absence when they leave their permanent civil-service position to become probationary in a different permanent civil service post. They could return to their original position if they fail probation in the new job or decide they don’t want it.
- A.6623A/S.3598 would increase the assessments on public works contracts, and requires that at least $2.4 million of these combined assessments be used by the state Labor Department (DOL) for enforcement of the prevailing wage law.
The DOL would be required to report on enforcement annually to the Legislature.
- A.7057B/S.3184A would add non-competitive and labor jurisdictional classes of civil service at all levels of state and local government to the classes covered by laws governing layoffs and recalls to work.
- A.7195/S.2873 would give those state PS&T employees who are members of the Teachers Retirement System (mainly those working at the Education Department, including those at the state schools for the deaf and blind) to add service credit for up to 200 days of unused sick leave when they retire.
Other PS&T employees, who are in the NYS & Local Employees Retirement System already have this benefit which is provided in the PS&T contract.
- A.7263A/S.4400A would allow members of all public retirement systems in the state to file and authenticate documents electronically with those systems.
- A.7350/S.4391 would improve the retirement plan for police and peace officers at the state Dept. of Taxation and Finance who are no longer able to work because of injuries received in the line of duty.
The legislation also creates the presumption that if the officers develop certain diseases and disabling conditions it was caused by their work.
- A.7616/S.3182 would require the state to use reverse seniority (least senior first) when involuntarily reassigning employees to a different geographic region.
- A.7621/S.3214 would extend the minimum leave to two years for public employees injured on the job.
- A.8291/S.5436 would give the survivors of eligible public employees in NYS who die or who give their lives while on active military duty the same death benefits that would have applied if the employee died while working as a public employee.
It would also allow veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to have special “War on Terror” license plates.
- A.8476B/S.5587 would allow members of the National Guard and reserves to take civil service competitive exams even if they missed the deadline to apply for the exam because of military duty. If their military duty prevents them from taking a scheduled competitive exam, they may take a “make-up” exam.
- A.8856/S.5799 would boost the cap on life insurance to $400,000 for which the state will reimburse the premiums of New York public employees on active military duty.
- A.8940/S.5773 would require public employers to develop and implement programs to prevent and minimize workplace violence. And it would allow any public employee or their union to request a state Labor Department inspection when they believe there’s an imminent danger or a safety or health standard has been violated.
The
Communicator July/August 05
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