THE ORGANIZATION OF NYS MANAGEMENT

CONFIDENTIAL EMPLOYEES

An Affiliate of OPEIU Local 153, AFL-CIO

3 WASHINGTON SQUARE, ALBANY, NEW YORK 12205-5523

TELEPHONE (518) 456-5241 ~ 800-828-OMCE ~ FAX (518) 456-3838

For Immediate Release:                                                                    Contacts:

February 16, 2010                                                                               Barbara Zaron, 518-456-5241

                                                                                                            nysomce@gmail.com   

OMCE Testifies at Legislative Budget Hearing

Management and Confidential state employees are treated unfairly, the group’s president says.

ALBANY, NY – The state’s management and confidential (M/C) employees are demanding from the governor justice, fairness, equity and respect, the group’s president said in a joint budget hearing on Wednesday.

In her testimony before the February 10 Joint Legislative Budget Hearings on the Workforce, Barbara Zaron, President of the Organization of NYS Management/Confidential Employees Inc, (OMCE) said M/C employees feel they have borne the brunt of the governor’s negative workforce actions.

Zaron reminded the committee that for the second year in a row the governor is withholding salary increases from M/C employees, who represent only six percent of the state workforce. All other employees are receiving their increases.

“M/C employees are certainly willing to share the sacrifice. However; they object to being singled out to bear the entire burden of workforce savings,” Zaron said. “When more and more management and confidential employees are trying to give up their M/C jobs because they earn significantly less – up to $10,000 less – than the staff they supervise, we have a serious problem that must be resolved quickly.”  

Zaron discussed OMCE’s proposals for addressing this issue and included with her written remarks the list of savings proposals, equaling more than $1.5 billion, which OMCE submitted to the governor and legislature multiple times over the past 15 months.

M/C employees are responsible for running the state’s agencies and programs and providing administrative support in all functional areas of state government, including budget and finance, personnel and payroll.

“They understand and appreciate the financial challenges facing New York as they are the staff who develop the cost savings proposals and implement the approved budget,” Zaron said. “They are responsible for ensuring that the work is done and services are provided, despite ever-diminishing resources.”

Most M/C employees are career civil servants who got their jobs through competitive exams, and who have dedicated their working lives to providing services to New York’s residents. They are taxpayers and active, involved members of their communities.

Zaron again shared OMCE’s list of recommendations, which produce significant savings and ensure fair treatment for M/C employees, including:

• Elimination of 300 political appointee positions, which would produce $30 million in savings that could fund M/C increases;
• Implementation of a “one paycheck deferred (lag) payroll, which would produce immediate cash savings of $35 million with guaranteed payment in the future;
• Amending statutory language in employee “pay bills,” which would establish an objective standard to be met for withholding salary increases and would be applied across the whole workforce;
• A two-phase restoration of the four percent general salary increase; and
• A two-phase restoration of lost performance advance steps.

The full testimony is available at www.nysomce.org.

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The Organization of NYS Management/Confidential Employees, Inc. (OMCE) is a statewide labor organization that advocates exclusively for managerial and confidential (M/C) employees before government agencies, the legislature and the courts, and is committed to preserve, protect and enhance the rights and benefits of M/C employees in New York State. OMCE is an affiliate of OPEIU Local 153, AFL-CIO.