BILL NUMBER:  S4987

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the civil service law, in relation
to the compensation paid to persons employed in positions requiring
foreign language skills, requiring the establishment of career ladders
for persons holding such positions, requiring establishment of
supervisory positions for persons required to have foreign language
skills, and requiring the department of civil service to annually
report to the governor and the legislature on persons in state service
holding positions requiring foreign language skills

 PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL :

This bill seeks to remedy one of the most overly discriminatory
employment practices of the New York State Department of Civil
Service. It creates a mechanism by which employees classified as
foreign language parentheticals (workers hired because the state needs
their multilingual skills) will: be able to have an opportunity for
upward job mobility; a pay differential that takes into their account
their in-demand communication skills; create a supervisory title that
allows for such a promotion based on job performance and years of
service. None of this exists today. An detailed annual report on the
status of all language parenthetical jobs in civil service system is
required.

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :
              

Section 1 - Section 121 of the Civil Service Law is amended by adding
a new subsection 2a. This new section requires the Department of Civil
Service (DCS) to classify any position requiring foreign language
skills to have a pay differential, as determined by DCS, then is
assigned to the same position which does not require the ability to
speak, write and understand any language other than English. Directs
DCS to establish a supervisory position for such employees and
compensation commensurate with their experience and ability to
evaluate persons with parenthetical titles.

Section 2 - Subdivision 5 of Section 121 of the civil service law is
amended by adding language that will deal with the progressive
advancement of employees with parenthetical titles.

Section 3 - A new section 124 is added to the civil service law that
requires the annual reporting to the governor and the legislature on
the status of language parenthetical employees within the system and
outlines data that is required to be presented in report.

Section 4 - Subdivision 2 of Section 130 of the civil service law is
amended to add the term foreign language skills as a factor for
promotion and pay differential allocation.

 JUSTIFICATION :

One of the most discriminatory hiring practices employed by the New
York State Civil Service System falls under the title of language
parentheticals. These employees need to poses multiple language
skills, are not compensated for them, have no opportunity for
promotions, are locked into low paying titles and their supervisors
are unqualified to supervise them.

This legislation will bring to all of the above to an end and create a
language parenthetical supervisory title and require a pay
differential for multi-language skills of current workers. For
decades, the work of these multilingual civil servants has allowed New
York State government to conduct is constitutional duties, yet all
these employees have been discriminated against by a system that does

not compensate them for their extra job skills or their years of
experience.

Fearing the loss of such valuable workers, promotional opportunities
to other civil service job titles are rarely allowed and the situation
is compounded when considering the fact that there are no supervisory
parenthetical job titles available for employees to aspire. In
addition, their present supervisors are not multi-lingual and
therefore unable to supervise the quality of their work. This adds
insult to injury to employees that find their work product is needed
but no respect or proper compensation for their skills available.

This legislation will effectively deal with this terrible situation.
The reporting mechanism will allow the legislature to monitor the
legislative intent of this proposed law so that substantial and
ongoing oversight of DCS actions with regard to these employees can be
gained.

A 2005 report by the New York State Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic
Task Force, a subsequent public hearing and other meetings with
minority workers has yielded valuable suggestion that need legislative
action to remedy what the 2005 report called, an appalling
under-representation of minorities in civil service and policy making
positions. This is one of 7 proposals to address these problems.

* In 2005, Hispanics made up over 16% of the entire state population
but accounted for only 3.8 percent or 6.515 of the 169.571 jobs in the
state government workforce. In real terms, this is a decline in close
to 1,000 jobs since 1991 or a 12.2% reduction in the number of
Hispanic state workers. This reduction came during a period when the
Hispanic population in New York grew by 33%.

* In 2015 Hispanics make up almost 19% of the entire state population
but account for 400 less jobs than they had in State government or
6,142 jobs out of 131,800.

Priority Legislation for the Assembly PR/H Task Force.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

2016: S.4148-REFERRED TO CIVIL SERVICE AND PENSIONS/A.8040- referred
to governmental employees
2015: A.8040- referred to governmental employees
2005-2006: A.9930-A-passed Assembly.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS :

N/A

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect immediately.