The state legislative session ended June 20. While big-picture items such as sports betting were not acted upon, CSEA was successful in achieving numerous legislative goals.
As this edition went to press, the governor has not signed any of these items into law. Here are some of the legislative goals we have achieved:
- Granting Section 75 disciplinary rights to labor class employees who have been in the labor class for five years;
- Prohibiting the privatization of state-operated Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) individualized residential alternative (IRA) programs;
- Requiring the state to reinvest 85 percent of all proceeds from the sale of OPWDD property into state-operated OPWDD programs;
- Requiring 30 days of notice from a municipality to retirees before they change the terms of their retiree health insurance;
- Restoring the full value of a public-sector retiree’s pension after they have repaid any outstanding pension loan. Currently, if an employee retires with an outstanding loan from the State and Local Employees Retirement System, their pension is reduced to pay back the loan. However, this reduction lasts forever, regardless of when the loan is repaid during retirement;
- Authorize Nassau County employees to continue to receive step increases if the control board implements another wage freeze;
- Limit a notice to close or downsize an Office of Mental Health (OMH) hospital to no more than two years. Currently, the state is required to give a one-year notice before closing or downsizing a facility. However, many times they keep this notice in place for years, causing unease among employees and patients;
- Precedent-setting legislation relating to SUNY Stony Brook University Hospital. This legislation, which addressed a land-lease to build a new hospital for Southampton, creates new and comprehensive anti-outsourcing language, prohibits classified employees from being transferred to the unclassified service, prohibits the co-mingling of funds between SUNY and the new hospital and prohibits classified employees at Stony Brook Hospital from being transferred to the SUNY Research Foundation or StaffCo. CSEA has fought for many of these provisions for years and this legislation will help set a precedent going forward relating to the SUNY hospitals.
Visit cseany.org for more information on state legislation that is of interest to our members.
