BILL NUMBER: S8839

SPONSOR: GOUNARDES
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the civil service law, in relation to hazard duty pay
for essential work performed in accordance with a state emergency disas-
ter declaration

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To provide for hazard pay to the state's essential employees charged
with maintaining services and managing the state's response to the
COVID-19 pandemic

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends the Civil Service Law to provide for the payment of
hazard pay to essential workers charged with the pandemic response
during a declared state of emergency.

              

Section 2 provides the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

In April 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Governor
called for hazard pay for the state's essential workers - those charged
with ensuring the continued operation of critical government services to
provide for the welfare, health and safety of all New Yorkers. Since
that time, many private hospitals, other health care facilities and
businesses have taken action to provide hazard pay and provide other
benefits like additional vacation time to their essential staff. Unfor-
tunately, the state has not yet taken any action to recognize and reward
its essential employees who sacrificed everything to help New Yorkers
adapt and survive the first round of COVID19.

These frontline workers include doctors, nurses and other healthcare
professionals at New York's understaffed public hospitals, the state
correctional facility staff and parole officers working to keep inmates
and parolees secure and communities safe, the workers at the state-oper-
ated residential facilities providing continuing care and treatment to
our most vulnerable citizens, the staff at the Department of Labor,
State Insurance Fund, Workers' Compensation Board, and the office of the
State Comptroller helping New Yorkers access unemployment, disability,
and workers' compensation benefits, the staff at the Department of
Health who are testing people for the virus and working to secure PPE
and effective treatment, and the essential staff at all of the agencies
that have been involved in supporting the various state's response
efforts.

Many of these workers contracted the virus in the performance of their
duties, in some instances, because of the lack of proper personal
protective equipment (PPE). These members literally put their lives on
the line to continue to perform their jobs at a time when many workers
were ordered to stay home.

This legislation would establish a long overdue hazard pay program as
well as provide two weeks of additional vacation time for essential
public employees so that these employees can prepare themselves and
their families for the likely resurgence of COVID-19 this fall if not
earlier.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

None

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

TBD

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately and shall be deemed to have been
in full force and effect as of March 1st, 2020.