The Contract Administration Department provides support for all contract negotiations, coordinates negotiations on issues that arise between contracts, and assists Field Services in implementing the agreements. The Department is PEF’s liaison with the Governor’s Office of Employees Relations coordinating the contract grievance process at Step Four and providing technical advice and assistance to Field Services at other steps of the contract grievance process. The Department also serves as the “institutional memory” for PEF negotiations and grievance history. Finally, the Department provides staff support for several of the PEF/State contract committees including the Joint Committee on Health Benefits (Article 9), the Workers’ Compensation Committee (Article 13), the Employment Security Committee (Article 22) and the Albany Parking Committee (Article 19).
Contract Negotiations
The Department coordinates contract negotiations for the PS&T Unit and provides assistance with negotiations as necessary to all other units represented by PEF. We assist the negotiating teams in developing bargaining strategies and proposals, provide staff support at bargaining tables, and review all agreements before they are sent out for ratification.
The Department’s involvement with PS&T Unit negotiations is a continuous one as implementation of one agreement merges into preparation for the next round of negotiations. For example, the Department is currently negotiating with GOER over the local agreements for unclassified service employees at the New York State Schools for the Deaf and Blind, which are historically negotiated after the PS&T Unit Agreement is ratified.
Over the past year the Department has also assisted Field Services with negotiations in some of the smaller units including the Albany County Probation Department and, most recently, at the National Drug Research Institute.
Contract Enforcement
Contract Administration is centrally involved in the day to day implementation and administration of the PS&T Unit Agreement. This includes day to day contact with GOER, providing advice and assistance to Field Services staff and PEF leadership on contract interpretation questions, and administering the PS&T Unit contract grievance process.
Timekeeping
In the last year the Department has been heavily involved with responding to the State’s failure to implement Article 12.17 Maintenance of Time Records as it was negotiated in the 1999-2003 Agreement. We are currently arbitrating the first Article 12.17 grievance to be filed on this issue, a statewide class action grievance for DOT. Once all the evidence is in, the parties will submit written briefs presenting our arguments, and the arbitrator will issue a written decision, probably sometime early in 2002.
In this case, the state has attempted to implement a change in record keeping for both overtime and non-overtime eligible employees. We are arguing that the change in language in Article 12.17 simply eliminated the historic distinction between record keeping practices for overtime ineligible and overtime eligible employees and should not have changed the historic record keeping practices for overtime eligible staff.
Retroactivity
The state also failed to implement the 1999-2003 PS&T Unit Agreement as negotiated in another area having Statewide significance as well. As a result we are also at arbitration over the State’s refusal to pay increases in Article 31 - Standby-On Call Pay and the expanded Article 38 - Overtime Meal Allowance benefit retroactively to April 2, 1999. The state implemented these benefits in April, 2000 and August 2000 respectively.
Contract Grievance Process
A significant challenge facing the Department has been and continues to be developing ways to address the significant numbers of contract grievances awaiting decision at Steps Three and Four of the grievance process. In the absence of a triage and expedited arbitration agreement with the State, we are engaged in an ongoing process of reviewing and prioritizing grievances for arbitration. This review will facilitate our efforts to reduce the backlog. We have identified grievances that have been settled, and others, after careful evaluation, may have to be withdrawn. The remaining grievances for arbitration are prioritized based on criteria such as the potential impact of a particular case, the number of members affected, the time sensitivity of the issue, etc. This is an ongoing process in which affected leadership has been and will continue to be involved.
10 Month Teachers and Vocational Instructors
The system for the payment of performance advances (increments) was changed in the 1999-2003 Agreement by the addition of a second payment date on October 1st of each year. When we concluded negotiations, we knew we still had to negotiate with GOER over how this change would be implemented for employees who work on the 10 month schedule. (See the sideletter on page 224 of the contract). Earlier this year, we concluded those discussions with an agreement that eliminated the entire year delay in the payment of increments for these employees. Under the previous contract, an employee would wait for 15 months after completing each school year in June until the increment was paid. Now, the increment will be paid at the start of the next school year, just three months after completing their work year. The sideletter also requires that the sick leave accrual rate for these employees be modified to correct some administrative deficiencies that inadvertently restricted the amount of sick leave earned each year. At the time of this writing, we are still waiting for GOER to respond to a PEF proposal, but we are optimistic that it will be resolved before the start of the 2001-2002 school year.
Downstate Adjustment
The 1999-2003 Agreement provided that a joint Labor/Management Study Group would investigate the need and cost of expanding the current Downstate Adjustment Program to Dutchess, Orange and Putnam Counties. The Department of Civil Service is collecting information on the need for this initiative. Based on our own analysis, we expect that it will show that the expansion is warranted. We will continue to press GOER for conclusion of this study and will take appropriate action once the study’s conclusions are finalized.
Unit Determination
Prior to the expiration of the 1995-99 Agreement, PEF exercised its rights under the Taylor Law to challenge the bargaining unit designation of more than 1,800 positions currently deemed to be managerial/confidential (M/C). Ultimately, it is PERB that will decide the appropriate negotiating unit, but as we have in the past, we have begun a series of meetings with GOER to review our challenge to see if we can reach some agreement without going forward with formal hearings. Since the review involves a discussion of the specific duties performed by the person holding the appointment, the process is a slow one. However, we do anticipate that we will have much of this resolved by mid-2002.
SUNY Stony Brook Salaries
Contract Administration staff has been working closely with PEF leadership at SUNY Stony Brook on the issue of nurses’ salaries. In April 2001, actions by the SUNY Board of Trustees and the State Department of Civil Service created a disparity in salaries for State nurses working in the Downstate region. The nurses at Stony Brook were historically among the very best paid nurses in State (and public service). However, the situation reversed in mid-2001, and nurses working in Stony Brook Hospital and the Long Island Veterans’ home, in some cases, fell thousands of dollars behind their counterparts working for other state agencies on Long Island and in New York City. Contract Adminstration and Field Services have filed contract grievances attempting to remedy the situation. While those cases are pending, we also facilitated membership meetings and have assisted the mobilizing activities of the local PEF leadership.
Parking
Contract Administration provides support to the Article 19 Albany Parking Committee and to representatives negotiating with their agencies over local parking agreements. PEF recognizes accessible parking as one of the most important quality of worklife issues to PS&T unit members. In the last year, improper practice charges and grievances have been filed in order to gain access to accurate information on Albany parking and to uphold our members’ contractual rights. Recently, we have been very involved in fighting the State’s attempt to impose, for the first time, parking fees for employees working at various capital district locations, including the State campus. PEF’s fight resulted in the MOA that maintained free parking at the campus and a parking freeze for state parking facilities in downtown Albany.
Joint Committee on Health Benefits
The Health Benefits staff responded to hundreds of telephone inquiries over the past year. The majority of inquiries concerned enrollment and benefit information with respect to the New York State Health Insurance Program (NYSHIP). The unit also referred hundreds of callers to their agency Health Benefits Administrators, Empire Plan insurers and administrators, GHI, and Davis Vision.
As part of the Department’s responsibilities to monitor NYSHIP, staff worked with state agencies, designated representatives of health care plans and staff of other state employee unions to resolve problems and formulate proposals for improving the administration of NYSHIP and specific health care plans.
Highlights of JCHB activities include:
• Expanded information available to members logging on to the Health Benefits section of the PEF website
• Recommended improvements to the on-line participating provider directories maintained by GHI and United HealthCare (UHC), which were later implemented
• Current participation on a meet and confer basis, in the review and evaluation of a vendor to insure and administer the NYS Vision Program beginning January 1, 2002
• Current participation in the review and evaluation of the HMOs requesting inclusion or continued participation in the New York State Health Insurance Program in the year 2002
• Attended NYS Health Benefits Administrator (HBA) Institutes to monitor information distributed to HBAs
• Reviewed and analyzed the Empire Plan rate renewals for the year 2001
• Prepared and/or reviewed health care plan informational materials including news briefs for the Health Benefits section of the PEF web site, articles for The Communicator, the 2001 Health Insurance Choices guide and rate flyer, and issues of the HMO Report and the Empire Plan Report
• Performed ongoing review and monitoring of health plan vendors’ performance
• Negotiated Memorandum of Understanding to implement a Complementary and Alternative Medicine Program for the Empire Plan (tentative implementation date Fall 2001)
• Attended the NYS Public Sector Coalition on Health Benefits Annual Conference