Senate Bill S159

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S159

SPONSOR: KAPLAN
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the civil service law, in relation to enacting the "New
York state teleworking expansion act"

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 is the short title of "New York state teleworking expansion
act".

Section 2 adds a new section 13 to have each state agency establish a
policy and program to allow employees to perform all or a portion of
their duties through teleworking to the maximum extent possible without
diminished employee performance. Each State Agency shall appoint a tele-
work coordinator who shall be responsible for overseeing the implementa-
tion of this program.

Further defines telework to mean normal and regular work functions on a
workday that ordinarily would be performed at the agency's principal
              

location at different location, eliminating or reducing the physical
commute.

Also defines state agency as any state department, board, bureau, divi-
sion, commission, committee, public authority, public benefit corpo-
ration, council, office, or other governmental entity. This section also
clearly states that nothing set forth in this section shall be construed
to impede, infringe, or diminish the rights and benefits that accrue to
employees and employers through collective bargaining agreements or
otherwise diminish the integrity of the collective bargaining relation-
ship.

This section also states that no agency shall establish a policy pursu-
ant to this section for any employee that is subject to a collective
bargaining agreement unless such policy has been mutually agreed to
between the agency and employee organization.

Section 3 is the effective date,

 
JUSTIFICATION:

If 2020 has taught us anything it is the intriguing value that telework-
ing presents both to employers to the State as well. Due to COVID19,
many state workers found themselves working from home. This legislation
which was introduced prior to the pandemic, tries to take necessary
statutory steps towards continuing to make telework a reality.

Teleworking offers an opportunity to reduce congestion. The federal
government and many states and municipalities have established telework-
ing policies to get workers out of their cars, and not merely to reduce
congestion.

Teleworking has been shown to increase productivity and retention while
reducing absenteeism. Private sector based strategies include tax cred-
its for businesses against the cost of planning, training and capital
purchases necessary to establish a teleworking program (i.e., Georgia),

or merely free consulting and training for businesses interested in
establishing teleworking programs (i.e., Connecticut).

Numerous jurisdictions have established successful teleworking programs
for government employees. Arizona, for example, required (and achieved)
20% of state government workers in busy Maricopa County (including the
City of Phoenix) to telework. Virginia has required that each state
agency should have 25% of its employee's teleworking by 2010. The feder-
al government requires its agencies to establish teleworking programs
for its employees, and over 100,000 federal employees participate. New
York should be required to establish a teleworking program for its
employees, with appropriate goals for the percentage of city workers
teleworking.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

S. 4647B/A.7127B of 2019/20; Advanced to Senate Finance Committee

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

Cost Savings to the State.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day.