Relates to improper employer practices relating to the continuation of pay, vacation and health care benefits; relates to eligible employees for retirement plans; relates to compensation items in disputed agreements.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A7519
SPONSOR: Fitzpatrick (MS) TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the civil service law, in relation to improper employer
practices relating to the continuation of pay, vacation and health care
benefits; to amend the education law, in relation to eligible employees
for retirement plans; and to amend the civil service law, in relation to
disputed agreements
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To provide state and local government fiscal relief by providing for the
codification of the Triborough Doctrine. The bill allows for the SUNY
optional retirement plan to all state and local employees and teachers
and places a limitation on binding arbitration agreements.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Amends the Triborough law by limiting the items which may not
be altered by an employer to the terms of an expired agreement that
relate to salaries, but not step increases, leaves of absences, active
employees' health insurance, holidays and all other mandatory subjects
of bargaining as defined by the Public Employee Relation Board case law
prior to its conversion.
Section 2. Amends the Education Law to allow state and local employees
and teachers the option of joining the SUNY optional retirement system.
Section 3. Limits binding arbitration awards to a maximum of 2% for all
compensation items subject to negotiation.
Section 4. Effective date.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE):
JUSTIFICATION:
Currently, localities are being strangled fiscally by the high costs of
retirement benefits that continue to grow even when limits are placed on
pay increases. Binding arbitration also adds to localities' cost of
doing business because arbitrators typically do not take into consider-
ation the employers' ability to pay increases to all the items subject
to binding arbitration.
Amending the Triborough Amendment to codify the Triborough law will
protect workers' salaries and benefits but also provide motivation to
unions who represent state and local workers to negotiate new contracts
in good faith. Allowing state and local employees and teachers to have
the option of joining the SUNY optional retirement system will provide
employers with a known cost for their contribution to the employees'
retirement as well as giving the employee a portable retirement account
that can be moved from one employer to another should the employee
decide to change jobs.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2024 - A6623 - Referred to Governmental Employees
2022 - A9998 - Referred to Governmental Employees
2020 - A5413 - Held in Governmental Employees
2018 - A7414 - Held in Governmental EmplOyees
2016 - A4865 - Held in Governmental Employees
2015 - A4865 - Held in Governmental Employees
2014 - A8603-A Held in Governmental 'Employees
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
See fiscal note in bill.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7519
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
April 1, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. FITZPATRICK, TAGUE -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of
A. MANKTELOW -- read once and referred to the Committee on Govern-
mental Employees
AN ACT to amend the civil service law, in relation to improper employer
practices relating to the continuation of pay, vacation and health
care benefits; to amend the education law, in relation to eligible
employees for retirement plans; and to amend the civil service law, in
relation to disputed agreements
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (e) of subdivision 1 of section 209-a of the
2 civil service law, as amended by chapter 244 of the laws of 2007, is
3 amended to read as follows:
4 (e) to refuse to continue [all the] terms of an expired agreement that
5 relate to leaves of absence, active employees health insurance, holi-
6 days, salaries excluding step increases, and all other mandatory
7 subjects of a bargaining agreement as defined by the public employment
8 relations board case law prior to its conversion doctrine until a new
9 agreement is negotiated, unless the employee organization which is a
10 party to such agreement has, during such negotiations or prior to such
11 resolution of such negotiations, engaged in conduct violative of subdi-
12 vision one of section two hundred ten of this article;
13 § 2. Subdivision 3-a of section 390 of the education law, as added by
14 chapter 18 of the laws of 2012, is amended to read as follows:
15 3-a. (a) Beginning July first, two thousand thirteen, the term eligi-
16 ble employees shall also mean any person excluded from or not encom-
17 passed within a negotiating unit within the meaning of article fourteen
18 of the civil service law who would otherwise be entitled to receive a
19 benefit under the retirement and social security law or the education
20 law initially hired on or after July first, two thousand thirteen with
21 estimated annual wages of seventy-five thousand per annum or greater.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08999-02-5
A. 7519 2
1 Such estimate of annual wages to determine eligibility for the purposes
2 of this subdivision shall be provided by the employer. For the purposes
3 of this subdivision, a newly hired state employee whose immediate
4 preceding employment was with another department, division, or agency of
5 the state shall not be deemed to be an eligible employee.
6 (b) Beginning January first, two thousand twenty-six, the term eligi-
7 ble employees shall also mean any person who would otherwise be entitled
8 to receive a benefit under the retirement and social security law or the
9 education law initially hired on or after January first, two thousand
10 twenty-six who would otherwise be eligible for membership in the New
11 York state and local employees' retirement system or the New York state
12 teachers' retirement system. For the purpose of this paragraph, a newly
13 hired state employee whose prior employment, immediately preceding such
14 state employment, was with another department, division, or agency of
15 the state shall not be deemed to be an eligible employee.
16 § 3. Section 209 of the civil service law is amended by adding a new
17 subdivision 7 to read as follows:
18 7. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, for
19 any dispute that is subject to the provisions of this section, the
20 determination of the public arbitration panel on a disputed agreement
21 shall not contain an increase in all compensation items subject to nego-
22 tiation which is greater than two percent more than all compensation
23 items subject to negotiation received by the employee organization in
24 the agreement between the public employer and the employee organization
25 immediately preceding the agreement being arbitrated.
26 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
FISCAL NOTE.--Pursuant to Legislative Law, Section 50:
This bill would amend Section 390 of the Education Law to broaden the
definition of the term "eligible employees" as it applies to eligibility
to join the State University of New York Optional Retirement Program
(ORP), otherwise known as the Voluntary Defined Contribution Program
(VDC). The definition would be expanded to include any person initially
hired on or after January 1, 2026 who would otherwise be eligible for
membership in the New York State Teachers' Retirement System (NYSTRS) or
the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS). Currently only
new employees with an annual salary of $75,000 or more and who are not
represented by a collective bargaining unit must choose between joining
the public retirement system (NYSTRS, NYSLRS) or the ORP/VDC. A newly
hired state employee whose prior employment, immediately preceding such
state employment, was with another department, division, or agency of
the state shall not be deemed to be an eligible employee.
It is not possible to determine the total annual cost to the employers
of members of the New York State Teachers' Retirement System since the
number of newly hired employees who would choose to participate in the
ORP/VDC each year cannot be estimated. This bill represents a fundamen-
tal change in the structure of public retirement benefits and would
substantially impact their funding. The number of new entrants to the
System could potentially decline each year if some newly hired employees
opt to participate in the ORP/VDC. The System's outstanding liability
under the defined benefit plan is funded over the average future remain-
ing working lifetime of its members. Thus, if the System experiences a
large decline in the number of new entrants each year, this funding
period would decrease, resulting in potentially increasing costs to
employers. It is strongly recommended that a full actuarial analysis and
report be completed to gauge all the potential costs and implications
A. 7519 3
fully and more quantitatively before a structural change of this magni-
tude is undertaken.
Member data is from the System's most recent actuarial valuation files
as of June 30, 2024, consisting of data provided by the employers to the
Retirement System. The most recent data distributions and statistics can
be found in the System's Annual Report for fiscal year ended June 30,
2024. System assets are as reported in the System's financial statements
and can also be found in the System's Annual Report. Actuarial assump-
tions and methods will be provided in the System's Actuarial Valuation
Report as of June 30, 2024.
The source of this estimate is Fiscal Note 2025-10 dated March 21,
2025 prepared by the Office of the Actuary of the New York State Teach-
ers' Retirement System and is intended for use only during the 2025
Legislative Session. I, Richard A. Young, am the Chief Actuary for the
New York State Teachers' Retirement System. I am a member of the Ameri-
can Academy of Actuaries and I meet the Qualification Standards of the
American Academy of Actuaries to render the actuarial opinion contained
herein.
