New York Public Personnel Law

Mar 14, 2023

The Doctrine of Legislative Equivalency

The Doctrine of Legislative Equivalency, applied by the Court of Appeals in deciding the Torre case [Torre v County of Nassau, 86 NY2d 421] sets out the principle that a position created by a legislative act can be abolished only by a correlative legislative act.

Mar 13, 2023

Judicial review of a petition seeking the vacating of an arbitration award

The Long Beach Professional Fire Fighters Association [Union] and the City of Long Beach [City] entered into a collective bargaining agreement [CBA] covering the period from July 1, 2004, through June 30, 2010, and thereafter continued pursuant to the Triborough Law, Civil Service Law § 209-a[1][e].* Firefighters and any municipal employees assigned to the fire department were covered by the CBA.

City appointed several paramedics, and unilaterally set their terms of employment. Union filed a grievance and, when the grievance was denied, filed a demand for arbitration. City's efforts to stay the arbitration with respect to Union's grievance as related to the paramedics were unsuccessful.**

Ultimately the arbitrator issued an award determining that City violated certain provisions of the CBA when it set contrary terms and conditions of the paramedics' employment. Union commenced this proceeding pursuant to CPLR Article 75 to confirm the arbitration award while City cross-moved pursuant to CPLR 7502(a)(iii) to dismiss the petition or, in the alternative, to reassign the petition to the Justice who presided over the prior proceeding, and to vacate the arbitration award.

Supreme Court granted the Union's petition to confirm the award and denied the City's cross-motion. The City appealed.

The Appellate Division, noting that "Judicial review of arbitration awards is extremely limited", said a court may vacate an arbitrator's award that "violates a strong public policy, is irrational or clearly exceeds a specifically enumerated limitation on the arbitrator's power, citing (Matter of New York City Tr. Auth. v Transport Workers' Union of Am., Local 100, AFL-CIO, 6 NY3d 332, and other decisions. Additionally, the Appellate Division opined "an award may be vacated where 'it exhibits a 'manifest disregard of law'" and the burden is on the movant to establish grounds for vacatur by clear and convincing evidence.

Finding that the City failed to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that the arbitration award should be vacated on the grounds that [1] it was irrational; [2] exhibited a manifest disregard of the law; [3] that the arbitrator had engaged in misconduct or [4] that the award violated public policy, held that Supreme Court had properly granted Union's petition to confirm the arbitration award and had properly denied the City's cross-motion to vacate the award.

* See Matter of Professional Staff Congress-City Univ. of N.Y. v New York State Pub. Empl. Relations Bd., 7 NY3d 458).

** See Matter of City of Long Beach v Long Beach Professional Fire Fighters Assn., Local 287, 161 AD3d 855.

Click HERE to access the Appellate Division's decision posted on the Internet.

Mar 11, 2023

Public Personnel Law Handbooks - New York State and its political subdivisions

The New York Public Personnel Law handbooks listed below are available for purchase from BookLocker.com, Inc.

The Discipline Book - A concise guide to disciplinary actions involving public officers and employees in New York State set out as an e-book. For more about this electronic handbook, click HERE.

A Reasonable Disciplinary Penalty Under the Circumstances- The text of this electronic handbook focuses on determining an appropriate disciplinary penalty to be imposed on an employee in the public service in instances where the employee has been found guilty of misconduct or incompetence. For more information click HERE.

Disability Benefits: payable to firefighters, police officers and other public sector personnel - an e-book focusing on retirement for disability under the NYS Employees' Retirement System, the NYS Teachers' Retirement System, General Municipal Law Sections 207-a/207-c and similar statutes providing benefits to employees injured both "on-the-job" and "off-the-job." For more information about this e-book click HERE.

The Layoff, Preferred List and Reinstatement Manual -This e-book reviews the relevant laws, rules and regulations, and selected court and administrative decisions. Click HERE for more information.

Editor in Chief Harvey Randall served as Director of Personnel, State University of New York Central Administration; Director of Research, Governor's Office of Employee Relations; Principal Attorney, Counsel's Office, New York State Department of Civil Service; and Colonel, JAG, Command Headquarters, New York Guard. Consistent with the Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations, the material posted to this blog is presented with the understanding that neither the publisher nor NYPPL and, or, its staff and contributors are providing legal advice to the reader and in the event legal or other expert assistance is needed, the reader is urged to seek such advice from a knowledgeable professional.

CAUTION

Subsequent court and administrative rulings, or changes to laws, rules and regulations may have modified or clarified or vacated or reversed the information and, or, decisions summarized in NYPPL. For example, New York State Department of Civil Service's Advisory Memorandum 24-08 reflects changes required as the result of certain amendments to §72 of the New York State Civil Service Law to take effect January 1, 2025 [See Chapter 306 of the Laws of 2024]. Advisory Memorandum 24-08 in PDF format is posted on the Internet at https://www.cs.ny.gov/ssd/pdf/AM24-08Combined.pdf. Accordingly, the information and case summaries should be Shepardized® or otherwise checked to make certain that the most recent information is being considered by the reader.