ALBANY — CSEA leaders said a targeted Early Retirement Incentive (ERI) recently proposed in the state legislature excludes too many workers to allow it to earn our union’s support.
“Let it be clear that CSEA does not generally oppose early retirement incentives, however, we have serious concerns about this incentive, which leaves too many workers out,” said CSEA President Mary E. Sullivan.
Unfortunately, the current proposal is too narrowly targeted, only covering certain state employees and excluding too many others, including numerous front-line workers who have provided essential services during this pandemic. It is also only available to local government workers whose employers choose to opt into the program, leaving many workers ineligible.
Furthermore, the bill doesn’t allow vacated jobs to be replaced, meaning workers already overburdened doing the work of several workers would have to shoulder the unfair burden of even more work.
Finally, there is a significant upfront cost to implementing any ERI, and without needed federal stimulus aid that is still not yet forthcoming, New York State currently doesn’t have the money pay for it.
According to our union’s Political Action Department, that alone means that the bill, A.10595, won’t move ahead in the legislature and no ERI is imminent.
Should that change, you can be assured CSEA will have a seat at the table for those discussions. We will keep you posted.
— Mark M. Kotzin
