Labor & Employment (Collective Bargaining)

This bill (S 8111) provides retirement credit for Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and Advanced EMTs who take a child care leave of absence without pay. It allows these workers to earn retirement credit for the leave period if they file a claim by December 31, 2025 (or within 90 days after the leave ends), pay the required pension contributions plus interest, and meet the leave terms under their collective bargaining agreement. The credit is limited to a maximum of one year per child care leave period. The policy directly affects EMTs in New York state who take unpaid leave for child care, ensuring their retirement service time isn’t reduced during that period.

Bill S 7159 mandates that all code enforcement personnel receive compensation for any required training. The specific rate of this compensation will be set by the Secretary of State. This rate must be no less than the personnel's regular rate of pay or any rate specified in their collective bargaining agreement.

Provides that no provision of section eighty of the civil service law shall modify, replace or supersede any provision of a collective bargaining agreement that provides for greater rights than required by such section.

This bill (A 2743) requires New York state to pay managerial or confidential employees at least as much as comparable union-represented positions. It applies to state workers in competitive, non-competitive, and labor classes whose roles are designated as managerial or confidential under state law. The law mandates that salary grade ranges for these positions must not be lower than those for equally graded union positions. Current employees in these roles cannot have their salaries reduced due to this change.

Provides a half exemption for the sale of the first $35,000 for a battery, electric, or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle from state sales and compensating use taxes and a full exemption on such sales where the vehicle was assembled in the United States utilizing union labor; authorizes local governments to elect such incentives; repeals the hybrid exemption after ten years.

This bill (C 241) terminates Executive Order 47.3, which had suspended certain laws to ban state employment for individuals separated from the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision due to participation in an "illegal and unlawful strike." The order prohibited state agencies from hiring or promoting such individuals and required background checks for applicants with that employment history. The resolution ends these temporary restrictions, restoring the original Civil Service Law and related provisions. It directly affects former Corrections employees who were separated from their positions over strike participation.

Provides that a collective bargaining agreement or employment contract shall not require that an emergency dispatcher employed by a municipality obtain approval from, or provide notice to, a supervisor to access mental or behavioral health care services.

This bill allows emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and advanced EMTs in New York to count time taken for child care leave toward their retirement benefits. It requires these workers to file a claim by December 31, 2025 (or within 90 days of ending the leave) and pay the retirement contributions they would have made during the leave, plus interest. The bill provides up to one year of retirement credit for each period of approved child care leave, ensuring this time is recognized in their pension calculations. It directly affects EMTs and AEMTs covered by collective bargaining agreements who take unpaid child care leave.

Enacts into law major components of legislation necessary to implement the state education, labor, housing and family assistance budget for the 2025-2026 state fiscal year; relates to contracts for excellence; relates to calculation of state aid to school districts; relates to a statewide dual enrollment policy; extends workforce education; relates to maximum class sizes for special education; extends chapter 82 of the laws of 1995; relates to foundation aid; provides for special apportionment for salary expenses; provides for special apportionment for public pension accruals; establishes a dual enrollment program; relates to universal pre-kindergarten and the Statewide universal full-day pre-kindergarten; extends provisions relating to paperwork reduction; relates to funding a program for work force education; extends provisions for monitors in the Hempstead union free school district, the Wyandanch union free school district and the Rochester city school district; relates to supplementary funding for the East Ramapo central school district; extends provisions authorizing the Roosevelt union free school district to finance deficits by the issuance of serial bonds; relates to requirements for zero emissions school buses; relates to certain instructional requirements for nonpublic schools (Part A); establishes a universal free school meals program; repeals provisions relating to the community eligibility provision state subsidy (Part B); relates to school policies regarding the use of internet-enabled devices during the school day (Part C); relates to scholarships awarded to part-time students by the New York state higher education services corporation; makes conforming changes; repeals provisions relating to tuition awards for part-time undergraduate students; relates to the New York state part-time scholarship award program (Part D); relates to authorizing the excelsior scholarship cover the cost of tuition in the state university of New York system (Part E); creates a New York opportunity promise scholarship for certain students who matriculated at a SUNY or CUNY community college, are over 25 years of age, have applied for certain tuition assistance programs, are eligible for resident tuition rates, and have not already obtained a postsecondary degree (Part F); provides for reduction of taxes pursuant to shelter rent (Part L); utilizes reserves in the mortgage insurance fund for the neighborhood preservation program, the rural preservation program, the rural rental assistance program, and the New York state supportive housing program (Part N); extends certain provisions relating to restructuring financing for residential school placements (Part O); authorizes child care support centers which are certified by the office of children and family services to place individuals as substitute caregivers at licensed and registered child care programs (Part P); relates to the provision of public assistance allowances to public assistance recipients upon the birth of a new child (Part Q); relates to increasing the standards of monthly need for aged, blind and disabled persons living in the community (Part R); relates to the effectiveness of provisions of law relating to the powers and duties of the commissioner of social services relating to the appointment of a temporary operator (Part S); relates to the healthy terminals act; amends certain definitions relating to covered airport location and covered airport workers; provides for the applicable standard rate as meaning the wage and benefit rates designated by the commissioner of labor (Part T); limits the amount of liquidated damages for certain frequency of pay violations (Part U); relates to civil penalties for violations of certain wage payment provisions (Part V); increases the civil penalties for violations of child labor laws (Part W); establishes a database for the employment of minors; allows for registration of minors and employers in such database; digitizes the process for minors to apply for employment (Part X); expands certain payments previously made to parents of deceased service members to spouses and minor children of such service members; authorizes the commissioner of veterans' affairs to conduct an outreach program for the purpose of informing the public and persons who may be eligible to receive an annuity (Part Y); requires submission of an annual report on the New York state museum (Part AA); decreases the length of the suspension period applicable to certain individuals who lose their jobs due to a labor dispute, such as a strike, and who seek to obtain unemployment insurance benefits (Part BB); requires social services for a city of a population of a million or more shall spend a certain amount of local funds for child care block grants (Part CC); establishes the crime of evading arrest by concealment of identity (Part DD); expands the merit time allowance and limited credit time allowance programs (Part EE); authorizes the commissioner of education to appoint a monitor to oversee the Mount Vernon city school district; requires such monitor to schedule three public hearings; requires the monitor and board of education to develop a proposed financial plan for the 2025--2026 school year and the four subsequent school years (Part FF); relates to the conversion to condominium ownership for the preservation of expiring affordable housing in the city of New York; provides expanded homeownership opportunities from the conversion of certain residential rental buildings to condominium status by property owners that commit to preserve the inventory of expiring affordable housing in the city of New York (Part GG); establishes the housing access voucher pilot program (Part HH); amends section 2 of chapter 868 of the laws of 1975 constituting the New York state financial emergency act for the city of New York, in relation to the effectiveness thereof (Part II); establishes the city of Buffalo parking authority; provides for its powers, duties and obligations (Part JJ); increases the maximum benefit rate for unemployment insurance (Part KK); amends provisions relating to discovery reform (Part LL); provides for the administration of certain funds and accounts related to the 2025-2026 budget; authorizes certain payments and transfers; relates to the administration of certain funds and accounts (Part MM).

This bill amends New York's civil service law to explicitly include individuals holding positions by appointment or employment in the state's organized militia (such as the National Guard) within the definition of "public employee." It directly affects militia members serving in these roles by classifying them as public employees under the law. The change modifies the legal definition but excludes these individuals from certain provisions related to collective bargaining (sections 210 and 211) while including them in the general definition for other purposes. The amendment takes effect immediately upon passage.