Nassau County employees owed nearly $150 million in covid comp time

    Nassau political appointees who have accumulated more than $100,000 in covid-compensatory time                                                                                

(Source: Nassau Comptroller's office)

Thousands of Nassau County public employees -- including top political appointees--have accumulated nearly $150 million in total covid-related compensatory time in the 13 months after Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered all but essential workers to stay home because of the coronavirus pandemic.

About 3,775 members of the county's Civil Service Employees Association accrued nearly $127 million  in addition to their regular pay from March 2020 through April 2021, including dozens who accumulated more than a half-year extra in salary, according to records from the County Comptroller's office.

But the records show that high-level political appointees, who can be hired or fired at will,  also have racked up nearly $18.4 million in covid-comp time on top of their regular salaries, including nearly $1 million reported to be have been accrued by 15 appointees who work directly for Nassau County Executive Laura Curran.

For example, Chief Deputy County Executive Helena Williams, whose annual salary is $187,000, accumulated nearly $145,000 in covid time, representing about 202 days.

The average year has about 260 work days.

Deputy County Executive Michael Santeramo, whose yearly salary is $160,000, is recorded as accumulating $102,149 for about 166 days in compensatory time.

The comptroller's office provided the records last week in response to a May 3 Freedom of Information request that asked for “a listing of the total accrued covid comp time for county employees; specifically an electronic excel list of all employees, by name, title , salary and department, accumulated covid comp time hours since March 15, 2020 and, if available, the dollar amount of that accumulated comp time. Covid comp time is the additional compensatory time earned by eligible county employees for working during the pandemic...." 

The records included three apparent mathematical mistakes, showing three csea employees earning millions in covid-time when their salaries and hours indicate they actually have accumulated less than $100,000 each. Correcting for those mistakes shows the total covid time accumulated by about 4,670 Nassau employees. including part-timers, is about $149,422,864, for a total number of 324,791 comp time hours.

Total comp time for ordinance employees (workers who can be hired and fired at will) is $18,367,074. Total comp time accrued by Curran's office employees is $987,084. (see below)

 Source: county comptroller's office

 

Right now, however, the accrued comp time is just on paper. So far, nobody has been allowed to access their comp time.

The CSEA currently is waiting for an arbitrator to decide how its members can use their covid compensatory hours -- through time off or cash payment or  whether they get anything at all.

Appointees generally get the same benefits as the CSEA. But employees of the elected county legislature were not granted any covid comp time.

In the past, when the CSEA won compensation that was not extended to appointees,  some appointees sued -- and won -- to receive a comparable benefit.

However, a arbitrator has already ruled that corrections officers are not eligible for covid comp time, which could be a blow to the CSEA's position.

Police have different contract rules for emergency time so no sworn officers are listed on the chart of accrued time.

For background:

On March 7, 2020 Cuomo declared an emergency in New York because of the covid virus and, on March 17, ordered all but essential workers to stay home.

No more than 50 percent of the workforce was to be considered essential.

Cuomo directed local governments to reduce their workforce by at least 50% and to allow non-essential employees to stay at home. 

In an executive order, he said, essential employees "should be considered any individuals whose job functions are essential to the effective operation of their agency or authority,  any individuals who must be physically present to perform their jobs or any individuals who are involved in the emergency response to COVID-19. Non-essential employees should be considered any individuals who do not need to be physically present to perform their job functions, or are not currently required to meet the core functions of their agency or authority during this emergency."

The county at the time had a total 7,326 full-time employees, according to the budget office.

Unlike many low-level private sector service employees, all county workers continued to receive their same salary and benefits under Cuomo's mandate whether they worked from home or went into the office.

There were discussions with the unions as to whether essential workers deserved more pay for working during the pandemic. Should they get their regular pay plus a half hour in comp time for every hour worked? Or an hour of comp time for every hour in the office?

The CSEA argued their contract calls for an hour of comp time for every hour worked in the office.

"Any employee who is required to remain at work after the County Executive or designated representative has dictated that extraordinary circumstances exist for that particular geographic area or location within Nassau County, shall receive equivalent compensatory time off at straight time, hour for hour, as the employees who were sent home or directed not to work," their contract says.

But at the time the CSEA provision was negotiated, "extraordinary circumstances" were thought to last a few days in response to a hurricane or snow storm -- not a year-long emergency declared because of a pandemic.

In April 2020, Cuomo called for the federal government to provide hazard pay to essential public workers-- a half-hour's pay for every hour worked.

"Essential public workers are the ones on the front lines every day carrying us through this crisis, and we must ensure their efforts and sacrifice are appropriately recognized," he said. "This crisis is not over yet, and as long as these workers continue to work and expose themselves to the virus, they should be properly compensated. I am calling on the federal government to provide hazard pay to these frontline workers and give them a 50 percent bonus because they are the true heroes in this crisis."

The call for extra pay was aimed at low-level, low-paid workers, but it was never passed into law. Althought the feds distributed millions of dollars in coronavirus funds, they did not direct that the money be used to provide extra pay to essential workers.

Most municipalities negotiated their own deals with their workers and asked their governing boards to approve the temporary agreements. Curran never presented anything to the legislature for approval regarding covid comp time.

 She is still negotiating a new contract for the CSEA -- as well as the Corrections Officers Benevolent Association and the Police Benevolent Association. All three unions have been working with a contract since the end of 2017.

Here is a copy of the COBA newsletter announcing the Feb. 2021 decision:

 

Dear COBA Members;

Late yesterday, COBA received the Arbitrator's decision in the Class Action Grievance filed because COBA Members who reported to work during the pandemic were not credited with Compensatory Time while other employees were directed not to work.

Everyone should be very familiar with this case. For anyone who may not be familiar with the facts, the contract states the following:‍

Sec. 38-14.1

In the event of adverse weather conditions that have impaired the use of available transportation facilities, or for other extraordinary circumstances, the County Executive or the County Executive's designated representative may at the County Executive's or the designated representative's discretion direct an employee, or group of employees either not to report to work, or to leave work. The employee(s) so directed shall be deemed to be absent with pay and shall not be charged for any time and leave credits due to such excused absence.

Sec. 38-14.2

Any employee who is required to remain at work after the County Executive or designated representative has dictated that extraordinary circumstances exist for that particular geographic area or location within Nassau County, shall receive equivalent compensatory time off at straight time, hour for hour, as the employees who were sent home or directed not to work.

Sec. 38-14.3

Any such release of employees directly or indirectly affected does not create any right to equivalent timeoff by any other employee or group of employees, not so released.

Sec. 38-14.5

The existence of such extraordinary conditions during the employee's next regular workday, by itself, shall not automatically relieve the employee from work. It shall be the obligation of the employee to communicate with the employee's Dept Head to ascertain whether or not the employee must report to work. Such communication by the employee shall be prior to the employee's normal starting time.

Sec. 38-14.6

The County Executive or designated representative's discretion in the administration of Section 38-14 shall not be reviewable.‍

In his decision, the Arbitrator ruled (in summary) that this clause was not triggered because the County Executive did not direct people to leave work. In fact she deemed COBA Members as "Essential Employees" and as such must report to work particularly during extraordinary circumstances such as the pandemic.

He also ruled that even though the Dept did direct some employees to stay home, this was not as a result of the County Executive determining who should work and not work, but because Federal, State and Local Health Dept and CDC Guidelines directed they not work in order to control the pandemic.

The Arbitrator also ruled that the Union would have firm standing to pursue legal action against the County if the County Executive or designated representative directed employees to report to work against CDC and Health Dept Guidelines, also that the County Executive was required to send employees home because their personal physicians told the Dept that they are, or may be infectious with COVID-19.

Lastly, he ruled that the County Executive's "discretion" in the administration of this section of the contract, as written in Sec. 38-14.6 "shall not be reviewable" and as such, the Union cannot challenge that discretion in this particular issue.

While this is obviously a disappointing ruling we did realize there were hurdles to get past in our argument. We have conferred with our attorneys at length and are currently exploring our legal options to fight this case further.

We have 90 days from the date of issuance to dispute the Arbitrator's ruling in Supreme Court. I can tell you that is most likely going to be our next move.

If you have any questions, remember our General Membership Meeting is tonight via Zoom, where this case will be discussed in further detail.

Always In Unity;

Brian Sullivan, COBA President