June 11, 2008
Granting leave time to local union officials
Danny Donohue is listed on the state payroll as a motor vehicle operator, Kenneth Brynien as a psychologist and Larry Flanagan, Jr. as a corrections officer.
Each, however, has a demanding, full-time job as president of a major public employee union--Donohue with Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), Brynien with the Public Employees Federation (PEF) and Flanagan with the Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association.
Thanks to a 1972 law, they remain on the state payroll while serving as union officers. Their unions reimburse the state for their salaries and benefits. Donohue, Brynien and Flanagan continue to accrue public pension benefits--and they have a job to return to should they ousted in the next union election.
Now a bill is pending in the Legislature to extend the same leave privileges to officials of local public employee unions. It was introduced relatively late in the session: May 12 in the Senate (qualifying it as a Rules Committee bill) and May 16 in the Assembly. In the Senate, it remains in the Local Government Committee. In the Assembly, it has moved to the Ways and Means Committee.
The bill says a local government worker elected to a union post:
...may be granted a leave of absence with full salary from their regular position for the purpose of serving with such employee organization provided that such employee organization shall reimburse the employer for the salary or wages paid to any such employee by the employing authority during such leave of absence together with the cost of fringe benefits as determined by the employer.
According to the sponsors' bill memo, elected officials of local unions now are granted leaves of absence. However, there is no state law authorizing the practices. The memo says the bill seeks:
...to clarify current practice...by authorizing such leave and requiring the employee organization to fully reimburse wages and benefits of the employee that is on leave.
[UPDATE: On June 11 (the same day this item appeared), the bill was amended so that unions would not have to "fully reimburse wages and benefits" of an employee on leave. The Legislature passed the amended bill, which was signed into law by Governor David Paterson September 4.]
The proposed new law would ensure the ability of local union officials to get pension credit for leave time, in addition to ensuring they have a government job to return to.
It includes no retroactive provisions, raising questions about the legality of any prior leaves granted to local union officials, especially when calculating their pension benefits. The bill's sudden appearance in Albany suggests that union officials may be worried about the legality of the "current practice".
As of last December, Donohue was paid $35,000 as a motor vehicle operator at Pilgrim State Psychiatric Center, Brynien made $71,700 as a psychologist for the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities and Flanagan earned $59,900 as a corrections officer. The figures do not reflect their most recent contractual raises.
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