NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A9853
SPONSOR: Abbate TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the civil service law, in relation to
the negotiability of disciplinary procedures affecting employees in the
competitive class of civil service of the state of New York or any civil
division thereof
PROVISIONS OF THE BILL: This bill amends Section 76 of the Civil
Service Law to modify the language of subpart 4 thereof relied on by
several courts in holding disciplinary procedures to be outside the
protection of the Taylor Law where any other law commits discipline to
the discretion of local officials and to make it clear that police offi-
cers and all other competitive class public employees in this state are
entitled to collectively bargain the disciplinary procedures that affect
them in their employment. The bill would also restore the provisions of
any collective bargaining agreements or interest arbitration awards
between public employers and public employee organizations relative to
discipline that were invalidated by judicial or administrative decisions
since the New York City PBA case was decided in 2006.
JUSTIFICATION: The fundamental purpose of the Taylor Law adopted in
1967 was to make all term and conditions of employment in the public
sector subject to collective bargaining. Early Taylor Law decisions
established that disciplinary procedures were terms and conditions of
employment subject to collective bargaining, and many collective
bargaining agreements containing disciplinary provisions and procedures
were adopted across the state, including those negotiated by police
labor unions. Over time, a series of judicial decisions, including most
notably the New York City PBA case decided by the Court of Appeals in
2006, found a countervailing policy in favor of strong local control of
discipline to override the public policy expressed in the Taylor Law
favoring the collective bargaining of all terms and conditions of
employment based on language in the current § 76(4) to the effect that
Sections 75 and 76 did not repeal or modify any local law or charter
provisions vesting control of discipline in local authorities. Although
the New York City PBA case involved the New York City Charter and the
Rockland County Police Act, the Court in its decision also noted that
the Town Law and the Village Law also contained provisions favoring the
local control of police discipline that would override the Taylor Law
presumption of negotiability.
Thus, at the present time, all police officers in the City of New York,
in Rockland County, and numerous other towns and villages across the
state have had their contractual disciplinary procedures taken away from
them without compensation and are subject to autocratic local control of
the discipline of their members without even the rudimentary protections
provided in Sections 75 & 76 of the Civil Service Law which were adopted
in 1958, 9 years prior to the Taylor Law. Every police officer employed
in any town or village in the State of New York that has not already
been divested of his contractual disciplinary procedure is subject to
immediate divestment by the simple expedient of the passage by the town
or village that employs him of a local law declaring local control over
police discipline.
This bill would legislatively overrule the judicial decisions on this
issue and would belatedly make § 75 & 76 of the Civil Service Law
consistent with the Taylor Law by declaring it to be the public policy
of the State of New York that all terms and conditions of public employ-
ment including police discipline are subject to mandatory negotiability
under the Taylor Law. It would also restore those collective bargaining
provisions that were previously declared invalid on grounds of public
policy by prior judicial or administrative decisions.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: None.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: None.
EFFECTIVE DATE: Immediately.
