Labor & Employment Law

Judicial review of arbitration awards is extremely limited

Posted on November 05, 2020
A detective [Plaintiff] applied for General Municipal Law §207-c line of duty disability  benefits. The Employer's claims manager denied Plaintiff's application as untimely. Ultimately the Plaintiff's Union [PBA] demanded that the matter be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the relevant provision set out in the controlling collective bargaining agreement [CBA] between the Employer and the PBA The arbitrator interpreted the disputed provisions of the CBA and found that the claims manager's denial of the application as untimely was not reasonable...

AELE case notes, publications, and seminars alert for November 2020

Posted on November 04, 2020
Gender Discrimination in Correctional Policies. New November AELE Law Journal article, https://www.aele.org/law/2020all11/2020-11MLJ301.pdf Jail & Prisoner Legal Issues Seminar---Attend Live or Virtually On Demand.  A 3.5-day updated seminar on "Jail & Prisoner Legal Issues...

New York State's Productivity Enhancement Program for certain State officers and employees in the Executive Branch of government

Posted on November 03, 2020
New York State's Productivity Enhancement Program (PEP) allows eligible officers and employees of the State of New York as the employer represented by the Civil Service Employees Association, representedby District Council 37 and Managerial/Confidential employees in the Executive branch of State government to exchange previously accrued annual leave (vacation) and, or, personal leave for a credit to be applied to their employee contribution for NYSHIP health insurance premiums on a biweekly basis...

Paid Family Leave Webinars for Employers and HR Professionals - Updates for 2021

Posted on November 03, 2020
This is a reminder that starting November 4, 2020, the Workers' Compensation Board is hosting Paid Family Leave webinars specifically for employers and HR professionals.Each one-hour, online session will provide an overview of the state?s landmark Paid Family Leave benefit, including important information regarding COVID-19, updates for 2021, and resources to help organizations and businesses share information with its employees...

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Application for accidental disability retirement benefits rejected on finding that the alleged disability was not suffered in the performance of the applicant's duties.

Posted on November 02, 2020
Plaintiff in CPLR Article 78 action appealed Supreme Court's dismissal of her petition seeking to have the court annul the New York City Employees' Retirement System's [NYCERS] determination denying Plaintiff's application for accidental disability retirement [ADR]...

Governor Cuomo's October 31, 2020 update of New York vs. Covid-19

Posted on October 31, 2020
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today said "Our state had one of the highest infection rates in the nation, if not the globe, and we now have the third lowest in the country. We cannot become complacent and risk going backwards. We continue to closely monitor the data and handle micro-clusters as they happen, as well as watching what is happening around us as cases surge again across the country...

Governor Cuomo releases guidelines on testing protocol for schools to reopen in red or orange micro-cluster zones

Posted on October 31, 2020
On October 31, 2020, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo released guidelines for schools to reopen in red and orange micro-cluster zones in order to help keep schools in focus areas open to in-person instruction. The guidelines require mass testing in schools before they reopen followed by vigilant symptom and exposure screening conducted daily...

Reminder: An Internal Revenue Service Webinar addressing payroll reporting for election workers is now available on the Internet

Posted on October 30, 2020
Check out this IRS presentation on payroll reporting and learn about reporting and withholding requirements that apply to paid election workers at: Payroll Reporting for Election Workers

Qualified privilege in an action seeking damages for alleged defamation

Posted on October 30, 2020
 In this action to recover damages for alleged defamation, the several defendants [jointly "Respondents"] separately appealed from an order of Supreme Court denying their separate motions to dismiss the complaint insofar as asserted against each of them...

Employee's failure to the give employer give due notice of the accident and other factors defeats employee's claim for a benefit arising from the collective bargaining agreement

Posted on October 29, 2020
Petitioner [Plaintiff] filed a petition pursuant to CPLR Article asking the Supreme Court  to annul the New York City Transit Authority's [NYCTA] decision to deny her differential pay for an injury she allegedly sustained while flying to Nevada for a training course...

An arbitrator's determination may be based on hearsay testimony

Posted on October 28, 2020
Supreme Court confirmed an arbitration award terminating petitioner's [Educator] employment as a tenured teacher. The Appellate Division unanimously affirmed the lower court's ruling, explaining that the  arbitrator's determination that Educator's teaching performance and judgment were poor during the relevant three-year period has a rational basis in the record and was not arbitrary and capricious...

Claiming qualified immunity after denying an individual access to school district property

Posted on October 27, 2020
The petitioner [Plaintiff] appealed the dismissal of her 42 U.S.C. §1983 claims against the Central School District [District] and the District's Superintendent [Superintendent] by a federal district court. Plaintiff had contended that her First Amendment and due process rights were violated when the Superintendent required her to obtain prior written permission to visit school property and that the Superintendent "expanded the scope of the restriction in retaliation for her objection to this requirement," and that these alleged violations occurred pursuant to a District custom or policy...

Claim of having an "invisible" or "hidden" disability undermines unlawful disability discrimination complaint

Posted on October 26, 2020
New York State Division of Human Rights [DHR] found no probable cause to believe that the New York City Human Resources Administration [HRA] had discriminated or retaliated against the petitioner [Plaintiff] in violation of the New York State Human Rights Law and dismissed Plaintiff's compliant...

Paid Family Leave Webinars for Employers and HR Professionals: Updates for 2021

Posted on October 24, 2020
The New York State Workers' Compensation Board invites Employers and HR professionals to a special Paid Family Leave webinar specifically for them. Register for this presentation by clicking here: Registration . You may register for either the Wednesday, November 4, 2020: 10:00 a...

New York State Bar Association Local and State Government Law Session Three: October 29

Posted on October 24, 2020
Topics in Municipal Labor Relations During the Pandemic: Part One ? Civil Service and Educator Layoffs and Reductions in Force Part Two ? FLSA Considerations in a Remote Working Environment There are still seats available for the third session of the Local & State Government Law Virtual Fall Meeting Series...

New York State vs. COVID-19 - October 24, 2020's report

Posted on October 24, 2020
Governor Cuomo noted that the positive testing rate in all focus areas under the state's Micro-Cluster strategy is 2.31 percent, and outside the focus zone areas is 0.98 percent. Within the focus areas, 18,563 test results were those reported on October 23, 2020, yielding 428 positives...

A grievance filed pursuant to the relevant collective bargaining agreement bars the grievant's simultaneously submitting an Education Law §310 appeal concerning the same issue to the Commissioner of Education

Posted on October 23, 2020
Citing Matter of Board of Education, Commack UFSD v. Ambach, 70 NY2d 501, Interim Commissioner of Education Betty A. Rosa noted that "it is well-settled that a school employee who elected to submit an issue for resolution through a contractual grievance procedure may not bring an appeal to the Commissioner [of Education] pursuant to Education Law §310 for review of the same matter...

Freedom of Information disclosure exemptions involving inter-agency or intra-agency materials

Posted on October 22, 2020
§86.3 of Article 6, "Freedom of Information" [FOIL] of the Public Officers Law, defines the term "Agency" as "any state or municipal department, board, bureau, division, commission, committee, public authority, public corporation, council, office or other governmental entity performing a governmental or proprietary function for the state or any one or more municipalities thereof, except the judiciary or the state legislature...

State and municipal audits issued on October 20, 2020

Posted on October 22, 2020
On October 20, 2020, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced the following agency and school district audits had been issued.Click on the text in blue to access the full text of the audit.  Agency Audits: Office of General Services (OGS): Compliance with Executive Order 88 ? Energy Efficiency of State Buildings (Follow-Up) (2020-F-18) An audit, covering the period April 1, 2014 to May 13, 2019, found OGS generally had developed targets and plans to contribute toward EO 88 and complied with the guidelines...

IRS Webinars videos - Election workers

Posted on October 22, 2020
Check out this presentation on payroll reporting and learn about reporting and withholding requirements that apply to paid election workers at: Payroll Reporting for Election Workers

Courts apply longstanding basic rules of statutory interpretation to ascertain and give effect to the intention of the legislature

Posted on October 21, 2020
In July 1976 legislation that fundamentally reformed the state pension systems was enacted and signed into law. Included were changes providing that "any public employee hired on or after July 1, 1976 would be enrolled in the newly-created Tier 3 [a system]  characterized as one 'designed to provid[e] uniform benefits for all public employees and eliminat[e] the costly special treatment of selected groups ...

An individual may be subjected to disciplinary action for alleged off-duty misconduct having a clear nexus to his status as an employee

Posted on October 20, 2020
During an investigation by the New York City Department of Education's [DOE] Office of Special Investigations [OSI] into a complaint that confidential student information had been posted on the Internet, the plaintiff [Petitioner] bring this CPLR Article 78 action, a DOE employee, acknowledged that he was involved in posting the information at issue to the website of United Federation of Teachers (UFT) Solidarity, "a political caucus within the UFT...

School District audits released during the week ending October, 16, 2020

Posted on October 19, 2020
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced the following school district audits have been issued during the week ending October 16, 2020 Broadalbin-Perth Central School District ? Cash Management (Fulton County, Saratoga County and Montgomery County) - District officials did not develop and manage a comprehensive investment program...

Sewer overflow problems

Posted on October 19, 2020
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli notes that at least 20 percent of the publicly-owned sewer systems in New York state were not reporting overflow events or registered with the electronic notification system (NY-Alert) that tracks those events, potentially putting the public at risk, according to an audit of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation DEC] released on October 19, 2020...

Facilitating Freedom of Information Law compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic

Posted on October 19, 2020
Another adverse impact of COVID+19 is the ability of governmental entities to provide timely responses to Freedom of Information Law [FOIL] requests. Government Technology?s webinar on October 20 at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern, focuses on how governmental entities can comprehensively and securely manage recordkeeping and bolster productivity by modernizing communication archiving and technology, focusing on: Being proactive rather than reactive when it comes to records management and requests; Fulfilling records requests when the workforce is dispersed; andEvaluating current technology and capabilities in the workplace Featured Speakers:Otto Doll, Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government John Rowe, VP of Sales for Government, Smarsh Paul Clanton - Moderator, Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government Register now for this complimentary webinar! All attendees will have the opportunity to download a certificate of attendance at the completion of the webinar tomorrow...

Governor Cuomo's October 17, 2020 update of the State's Progress during COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted on October 17, 2020
The Positive Testing Rate in Hot Spot Areas is 4.84 Percent; New York State Positivity Without Red Zone Focus Areas Included is 1.14 PercentOn October 16, 2020 there were 10 COVID-19 deaths in New York State  On October 17, 2020 Governor Andrew M...

OATH launches citywide text-messaging reminder system for all civil summonses

Posted on October 16, 2020
On September 4, 2020, the New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings [OATH] announced a citywide launch of a text-messaging reminder system to remind respondents about their Hearings Division hearing dates. Respondents can register by simply texting "OATH reminder" to 474747, and then responding to the prompt with their summons number...

10 RBG Takeaways from 2 Lawyers Fighting to Redefine Female Retirement

Posted on October 16, 2020
Ruth Bader Ginsburg?s passing has spurred great memories from across all demographics. She paved the way for women?s equality?from the right to sign a mortgage without a man to the right to have a bank account without a male co-signer, and even the right to have a job without being discriminated against based on gender...

Retiring upon attaining the mandatory age of retirement bars claim for line of duty sick leave benefits

Posted on October 16, 2020
General Municipal Law §92-d provides for sick leave benefits to certain employees with qualifying World Trade Center conditions as defined by §2 of the Retirement and Social Security Law. A former fire chief [Chief] commenced this CPLR Article 78 proceeding against his former employer [City] in an effort to have the City's determination denying his application for line-of-duty sick leave pursuant to General Municipal Law §92-d annulled...

Salaries of undercover police officers not subject to disclosure pursuant to the Freedom of Information Law

Posted on October 14, 2020
§89[3][a] of the New York State (Public Officers Law)*, The Freedom of Information Law [FOIL], provides that "[n]othing in [the statute] shall be construed to require any entity to prepare any record not possessed or maintained by such entity." In this CPLR Article 78 action the Empire Center for Public Policy [Empire] challenged the denial of its FOIL request seeking the aggregate gross salary of all individuals not included in the NYC Open Data Citywide Payroll Database for fiscal year 2017...

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