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History
- Pocket veto - veto.589
- Delivered to governor
- Returned to senate
- Passed assembly
- Ordered to third reading rules cal.497
- Substituted for A9853
- Referred to codes
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 57–2
- Ordered to third reading cal.1549
- Committee discharged and committed to rules
- Referred to civil service and pensions
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Declares that all competitive class employees are entitled to collective bargaining with respect to matters pertaining to disciplinary procedures
Assembly Floor Calendar · Sponsor Peter Abbate
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S7801
Title of bill
An act to amend the civil service law, in relation to the negotiability of disciplinary procedures affecting employees in the competitive class of civil service of the state of New York or any civil division thereof
Provisions of the bill
This bill amends Section 76 of the Civil Service Law to modify the language of subpart 4 thereof relied on by several courts in holding disciplinary procedures to be outside the protection of the Taylor Law where any other law commits discipline to the discretion of local officials and to make it clear that police officers and all other competitive class public employees in this state are entitled to collectively bargain the disciplinary procedures that affect them in their employment. The bill would also restore the provisions of any collective bargaining agreements or interest arbitration awards between public employers and public employee organizations relative to discipline that were invalidated by judicial or administrative decisions since the New York City PBA case was decided in 2006.
Read the full memo (615 words)
Justification
The fundamental purpose of the Taylor Law adopted in 1967 was to make all term and conditions of employment in the public sector subject to collective bargaining. Early Taylor Law decisions established that disciplinary procedures were terms and conditions of employment subject to collective bargaining, and many collective bargaining agreements containing disciplinary provisions and procedures were adopted across the state, including those negotiated by police labor unions. Over time, a series of judicial decisions, including most notably the New York City PBA case decided by the Court of Appeals in 2006, found a countervailing policy in favor of strong local control of discipline to override the public policy expressed in the Taylor Law favoring the collective bargaining of all terms and conditions of employment based on language in the current § 76(4) to the effect that Sections 75 and 76 did not repeal or modify any local law or charter provisions vesting control of discipline in local authorities. Although the New York City PBA case involved the New York City Charter and the Rockland County Police Act, the Court in its decision also noted that the Town Law and the Village Law also contained provisions favoring t he local control of police discipline that would override the Taylor Law presumption of negotiability.
Thus, at the present time, all police officers in the City of New York, in Rockland County, and numerous other towns and villages across the state have had their contractual disciplinary procedures taken away from them without compensation and are subject to autocratic local control of the discipline of their members without even the rudimentary protections provided in Sections 75 & 76 of the Civil Service Law which were adopted in 1958, 9 years prior to the Taylor Law. Every police officer employed in any town or village in the State of New York that has not already been divested of his contractual disciplinary procedure is subject to immediate divestment by the simple expedient of the passage by the town or village that employs him of a local law declaring local control over police discipline.
This bill would legislatively overrule the judicial decisions on this issue and would belatedly make § 75 & 76 of the Civil Service Law
consistent with the Taylor Law by declaring it to be the public policy of the State of New York that all terms and conditions of public employment including police discipline are subject to mandatory negotiability under the Taylor Law. It would also restore those collective bargaining provisions that were previously declared invalid on grounds of public policy by prior judicial or administrative decisions.
Prior legislative history
None.
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.