Local 237’s effort to ensure that school safety agents employed by the NYPD are given time off with pay to recover from injuries resulting from line-of-duty assaults may soon become law if it wins Governor George Pataki’s approval.

Both the City Council, which passed a Home Rule Message, SLR 51, supporting state legislation on the issue, and the State Legislature, which approved the legislation in both houses, agree that school safety agents should have the same rights to paid sick leave as New York City police officers and corrections officers when they are assaulted on the job.

SLR 51, sponsored by Council Member Joel Rivera, chair of the Council’s Committee on State and Federal Legislation, Council members Lewis Fidler (D-Kings) and Michael Nelson (D-Kings), allows state legislators to move forward on legislation that would provide school safety officers with a leave of absence of up to 18 months and receive pay that is the difference between their weekly salary and their Workers’ Compensation wage benefit without any charge against their annual sick leave if they are disabled due to an assault while performing their job.

The state legislation, S. 3118, by Senator Dale Volker in the Senate, and its companion bill in the Assembly, A. 7020, by Assemblyman Peter J. Abbate, would also require that a neutral body — the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings of the City of New York — make determinations of assault instead of the NYPD as is currently the case.

“This legislation gives school safety agents what is long due to us,” said Local 237 President Carl Haynes. “NYPD officers routinely receive paid leave when they are injured on the job while protecting the public. School safety agents, even within the same agency, are forced to use their own sick time if they get hurt on the job even though their work is hazardous.”

Local 237’s Executive Assistant and Counsel to the President George Geller testified at the Council hearing that the union is pushing for the legislation because school safety agents — who daily risk their lives to protect staff and students in the city’s schools — are charged against leave credit for illness or injuries that occur in the line of duty. The Police Department also repeatedly denies school safety agents leaves of absence, even when they are ill or injured on the job due to assaults, said Geller. Instead, the NYPD’s investigations routinely result in no evidence of assault, which forces agents to go to arbitration — a process that can take years — in order to be rightfully compensated.

Union Wins Most Cases

“The union wins almost 100 percent of its Line-of-Duty Assault cases when they are taken to the neutral forum of arbitration,” says Deborah Singer Esq., Citywide grievance coordinator, who cites three successful grievances, reported in Newsline March 2004. The three cases were heard by a neutral arbitrator about two or three years after they were originally filed with the Police Department.

In one case, School Safety Agent Rosemary Fuentes suffered injuries while breaking up a fight at a Manhattan school and was awarded her 18 months of back pay. In another case, SSA Robert Lasky was injured while apprehending a student and was awarded the difference between his salary and Workers’ Compensation benefits for the entire grievance period of more than one year. In the third case, SSA Evangeline Dancy, assaulted by a student, won her full salary for 15 months, less any Workers’ Compensation benefits she received for about one year.

Local 237 Secretary-Treasurer Gregory Floyd noted that the City Council recently acknowledged the dangers SSAs face on the job by enacting legislation classifying them in the uniform coalition for purposes of collective bargaining. Likewise, they should be granted the same disability leave benefits as other uniformed titles when they suffer illness or injury in the line of duty.

Local 237 Political Action Director Patricia Stryker noted, “The union did all it can to get the legislation to the Governor’s desk. Members can help put the pressure on to encourage Governor Pataki to sign it into law.”

ACT TODAY!

To urge Governor Pataki to sign this legislation, letters should be mailed or faxed to: Honorable George E. Pataki Governor of New York Executive Chamber Albany, NY 12224 Fax number: 518-474-1513 or e-mailed to: gov.pataki@chamber.state.ny.us