Union keeping close eye on DOT privatization, Workers’ Comp bills

By SHERRY HALBROOK
Among the many bills PEF is following in the state Legislature, those dealing with privatization and contracting out are especially important.

A program bill (S.4913/A.882), introduced at the request of the state Transportation Department (DOT), is one of these because it would hand over virtually all of the department’s engineering design work on highway projects to private contractors — a financial windfall for the contractors, but a disaster for taxpayers.

The union is also wading into a developing battle over proposed changes to the state’s Workers’ Compensation Law.

Holding down the costs
“We have opposed this Design/Build bill very actively in the past, and we have made sure legislative leaders in both houses are aware of our opposition to the current legislation,” said PEF President Roger Benson.

According to PEF Legislative Director Brian Curran, DOT has been requesting this legislation since 1999. It would let the department wrap both the design and construction of highway projects into single contracts, instead of waiting until the design work is completed to bid and award the contracts for construction to the lowest responsible bidder.

Curran said PEF opposes the change because “it eliminates the competitive bidding process” and could result in the state paying a lot more than necessary for the construction.
“It would also restrict competition to the largest contractors that have in-house design capability,” Curran said. “Smaller contractors typically don’t have the resources to design the project, even though they may be very capable of performing the construction work.”

Although studies by two previous state comptrollers, and other experts have repeatedly shown that most of DOT’s engineering and design work can be done as well or better by state employees and for less cost, projects done under this proposed legislation would all be designed by outside contractors.

So far, PEF has succeeded every year in keeping the bills bottled up in the Assembly and Senate committees.

“We are continuing our vigorous opposition to this bill and we continue to be optimistic that we can again defeat it,“ Benson said. “However, it is always important to be alert to issues of this nature, because our vigilance is essential to keep bad ideas such as Design/Build bottled up where they belong.”

Benson and Curran encouraged PEF members and retirees to contact their state lawmakers and urge them to oppose this bill.

Helping the injured
Several bills are being introduced this year to amend New York’s Workers’ Comp Law, and PEF is supporting one (S.6135/A.9736), that would provide “a long overdue increase in the maximum Workers’ Comp benefit for workers disabled by an injury on the job,” Curran said.

“Workers’ Comp benefits have not been raised since 1992,” Benson said. “The current benefit of $400 per week is not enough for injured workers to support their families, and fails to provide the safety net against financial destitution that it is supposed to provide them.”

PEF members have it better than most other workers in New York, because the union negotiated a secondary benefit in the PS&T contract which gives them a total benefit of 60 percent of their gross pay for up to nine months if they are severely disabled. However, when this benefit runs out, they, too, receive only the benefit provided by law.

“In 1992, the maximum benefit of $400 was 66 percent of the average weekly wage in New York state at that time,” Benson added, “but it’s just 44 percent of the average wages today.”
Curran said the union opposes other Workers’ Comp changes in a bill being proposed by the governor, and a bill backed by an organization representing small businesses.

“Please urge your state legislators to support S.6135/A.9736,” Benson said. “Besides boosting basic benefits, it will make other changes to increase the efficiency and fairness of the Workers’ Compensation system.”