PEF President Wayne Spence was joined by Vice President and Contract Chair Darlene Williams, as well as PEF Civil Service Enforcement/Research Director and Contract Administration Director Deborah Greenberg for about a 40-minute Telephone Town Hall. Use the timecodes below the recording to jump to the part you wish to hear.
0:01:30 – President Spence and Director Foley discuss the compensation study.
President Spence met with Gov. Hochul and spoke about the contract with Deloitte and where we were with the compensation study. Her response was that it is going on, but given what’s been going on with the federal government, they may not be able to implement any of the recommendations.
0:04:30 – Discussion turns to NY HELPS and the new plan to “modernize” the Civil Service merit system. PEF has been hearing that people being hired under NY HELPS are moving into positions above existing staff waiting for promotional exams/opportunities.
0:06:20 – Foley, and her team, created a flyer that was emailed out, posted on the PEF App, on the PEF.org website, and on social media, explaining what the state has proposed after NY HELPS ends in June 2026, and calling members to action.
Foley said the state has not increased promotional exams and they have not opened the regional testing centers, as promised. With this looming end date, instead of putting more resources toward increasing promised items – the Department of Civil Service has proposed implementation of a job application management system (PEF does not oppose that) and expanded use of evaluations of training and experience, versus merit testing.
These are not direct assessment of skills, these are reviews of resumes. While these are not new, they have been historically used to filter out candidates at the highest level, not for open competitive positions and that is what they are proposing. We have no idea how they are going to score this. We have a lot of questions.
0:12:35 – Call to action in the flyer. Take a moment to understand our main concerns, such as discrimination against marginalized populations, weakening of the merit system, barriers for new entrants and career mobility, and a risk of dishonesty. PEF needs your help to apply pressure to ensure we continue to have a dialogue as stakeholders in this conversation. Click here to send a pre-written letter to the New York State Department of Civil Service.
0:18:15 – Director of Contract Administration Debra Greenberg and PEF VP and Contract Chair Darlene Williams begin discussion on contract negotiations.
The PEF/State Agreement expires on April 2, 2026. PEF sent a demand to bargain letter to the Office of Employee Relations (OER) for dates to sit down in September and October. President Spence said the state indicated they are not ready because they are unsure what the state coffers are going to look like after federal budget cuts trickle down to the state.
PEF wants to go to the table to negotiate non-economic items that are just as important and we should start having those conversations.
0:20:45 – VP Williams urged members to fill out the contract survey available here, and said the Contract Team started meeting every month since January. Bargaining in these challenging times, with the current economy and what is going on with the federal budget, is going to be hard.
She said during Labor Day parades PEF made sure to let everyone know what PEF does. PEF Does It – we keep the state running and we have to remind the Governor that we are the people that keep the state running.
Members were urged to take the survey and send additional ideas and concerns to 2026contractsuggestions@pef.org.
0:24:45 – Discussion on “sunset” wins in the last contract begins.
Greenberg outlined several benefits that used to sunset and no longer do, thanks to the Contract Team’s efforts in the last round of negotiations (read the story here). These included committee funding, employer contributions to Dependent Care Advantage Accounts; longevity pay for newly eligible, and more. The team no longer has to “trade” anything to keep these programs going after contract expiration.
0:28:30 – Discussion turns to the new Anthem dental plan.
Anthem response is mixed, Greenberg reported. The directory is filled with inaccuracies and PEF has asked Civil Service to do an audit.
To help with network issues, PEF advocated for mobile dentist clinics that could accommodate 50 patients a day. Some thought it was great. Unfortunately, between PEF and other NYSHIP members, only 30 people signed up.
0:35:20 – Limited Access Program discussion.
If there are no network dentists in a member’s area, they can call 833-821-1949, and get Anthem to approve in advance that you see an out of network dentist and they will cover you as if in-network. We want a lot more people to do this. MAKE SURE TO CALL in ADVANCE. The more cost to the state to pay these, the more they will be interested in improving the network.
Members are urged to take part in the letter-writing campaign and contract survey, both in the PEF App. For information on how to download and use the app, visit http://www.pef.org/app.