Senate Bill S6455

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S6455

SPONSOR: SCARCELLA-SPANTON
 
TITLE OF BILL:

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

 
PURPOSE:

To reduce congestion and increase flexibility by increasing teleworking
in New York State agencies.

 
SUMMARY OF 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:

Teleworking offers an opportunity to reduce congestion.

The federal government and many states and municipalities have estab-
lished teleworking 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 credits 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 tele-
working 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 employees teleworking by 2010. The federal
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.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2022: A464 (Rozic) - Delivered to Senate

2021: A464 (Rozic) - Third Reading

2020: A7127B (Rozic) - Governmental Employees

2019: A7127 (Rozic) - Governmental Employees

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

Cost Savings to the State.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become a law.