2025 CSEA Legislative Summary
The 2025 New York State legislative has session ended. While we expect the Senate and Assembly to return in the fall to address the effects of the federal cuts on the state’s budget, the bulk of this year’s legislative work is complete.
Here is a summary of key legislation CSEA was tracking this session. A more in-depth and thorough summary will be available soon.
CSEA-supported bills passed both houses
This bill protects employees of local governments, school districts, and SUNY from displacement by Artificial Intelligence and provides transparency by requiring employers to report their use of AI systems. This builds off last year’s law that gives these protections to state and public authority employees.
This legislation requires the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation to develop operational safety plans prior to sending employees into hazardous conditions.
This legislation ensures collective bargaining agreements remain in effect when they contain provisions that provide layoff rights that exceed the requirements of Civil Service Law §80.
This bill makes a technical change to the public employee Workplace Violence Prevention law to clarify that time spent by an employee on an inspection, including a risk evaluation and determination inspection, or annual program review is paid time.
This bill aligns infant supervision standards for home-based childcare providers with what is already done for childcare centers.
This legislation requires that when a public employer offers someone a job or promotion, they must provide specific information about the position, including terms of employment, salary, and benefits.
Bills CSEA Successfully Opposed
This bill would have removed disciplinary procedures from being a mandatory subject of negotiation for all employees of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision who are accused of “serious misconduct.”
This legislation would have outsourced wage theft enforcement actions to private organizations. This work is performed by staff at the Department of Labor.
Other Issues
CSEA has been actively working on legislation to increase safety in and around highway work zones. In this year’s budget, we were successful in expanding the number of work zone speed cameras that can be used by DOT and Thruway Authority, and expanded authorization to the Bridge Authority.
CSEA worked to increase penalties for speeding in a work zone and for failing to move over when legally required. While we were successful in getting the State Senate to pass this legislation, we were unsuccessful in getting the Assembly to follow suit. We remain committed to working on this issue in the future.
Legislation was passed to rename state roads after CSEA members who were killed in work zones, including: Stephen Ebling, a CSEA Thruway Authority employee who was killed while working on I-90 last November; and Jake Arcara, a member of CSEA’s Yorktown unit, who was tragically killed on the job by a motorist who sped through a construction zone.
There is pending legislation to honor Robert Bornt that we expect to pass in 2026.
In response to the Robert Brooks murder and other high-profile incidents in our state and local correctional system, the State Senate and Assembly passed an omnibus corrections reform bill. Notable provisions of the package are as follows:
- Requires the disclosure of video footage pertaining to the death of an incarcerated individual involving correctional officers.
- Requires all state prisons to install, operate, and maintain fixed or stationary cameras sufficient to capture the activities and movement of all people within a correctional facility.
- Requires the State Commission of Correction to conduct a comprehensive study on deaths in correctional facilities.