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Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- 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.
Relates to compensation paid to persons employed in positions requiring foreign language skills
In Assembly Committee · Governmental Employees · Sponsor Guillermo Linares
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the civil service law, in relation to the compensation paid to persons employed in positions requiring foreign language skills, requiring the establishment of career ladders for persons holding such positions, requiring establishment of supervisory positions for persons required to have foreign language skills, and requiring the department of civil service to annually report to the governor and the legislature on persons in state service holding positions requiring foreign language skills
Purpose or general idea of bill
This bill seeks to remedy one of the most overly discriminatory employment practices of the New York State Department of Civil Service. It creates a mechanism by which employees classified as foreign language parentheticals (workers hired because the state needs their multilingual skills) will: be able to have an opportunity for upward job mobility; a pay differential that takes into their account their in-demand communication skills; create a supervisory title that allows for such a promotion based on job performance and years of service. None of this exists today. An detailed annual report on the status of all language parenthetical jobs in civil service system is required.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1 - Section 121 of the Civil Service Law is amended by adding a new subsection 2a. This new section requires the Department of Civil Service (DCS) to classify any position requiring foreign language skills to have a pay differential, as determined by DCS, then is assigned to the same position which does not require the ability to speak, write and understand any language other than English. Directs DCS to establish a supervisory position for such employees and compensation commensurate with their experience and ability to evaluate persons with parenthetical titles.
Read the full memo (850 words)
Section 2 - Subdivision 5 of Section 121 of the civil service law is amended by adding language that will deal with the progressive advancement of employees with parenthetical titles.
Section 3 - A new section 124 is added to the civil service law that requires the annual reporting to the governor and the legislature on the status of language parenthetical employees within the system and outlines data that is required to be presented in report.
Section 4 - Subdivision 2 of Section 130 of the civil service law is amended to add the term foreign language skills as a factor for promotion and pay differential allocation.
Justification
One of the most discriminatory hiring practices employed by the New York State Civil Service System falls under the title of language parentheticals. These employees need to poses multiple language skills, are not compensated for them, have no opportunity for promotions, are locked into low paying titles and their supervisors are unqualified to supervise them.
This legislation will bring to all of the above to an end and create a language parenthetical supervisory title and require a pay differential for multi-language skills of current workers. For decades, the work of these multilingual civil servants has allowed New York State government to conduct is constitutional duties, yet all these employees have been discriminated against by a system that does
not compensate them for their extra job skills or their years of experience.
Fearing the loss of such valuable workers, promotional opportunities to other civil service job titles are rarely allowed and the situation is compounded when considering the fact that there are no supervisory parenthetical job titles available for employees to aspire. In addition, their present supervisors are not multi-lingual and therefore unable to supervise the quality of their work. This adds insult to injury to employees that find their work product is needed but no respect or proper compensation for their skills available.
This legislation will effectively deal with this terrible situation. The reporting mechanism will allow the legislature to monitor the legislative intent of this proposed law so that substantial and ongoing oversight of DCS actions with regard to these employees can be gained.
A 2005 report by the New York State Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, a subsequent public hearing and other meetings with minority workers has yielded valuable suggestion that need legislative action to remedy what the 2005 report called, an appalling under-representation of minorities in civil service and policy making positions. This is one of 7 proposals to address these problems.
* In 2005, Hispanics made up over 16% of the entire state population but accounted for only 3.8 percent or 6.515 of the 169.571 jobs in the state government workforce. In real terms, this is a decline in close to 1,000 jobs since 1991 or a 12.2% reduction in the number of Hispanic state workers. This reduction came during a period when the Hispanic population in New York grew by 33%.
* In 2015 Hispanics make up almost 19% of the entire state population but account for 400 less jobs than they had in State government or 6,142 jobs out of 131,800.
Prior legislative history
2005-2006: A.9930-A-passed Assembly. Priority Legislation for the Assembly PR/HTask Force.
Fiscal implications for state and local governments
N/A
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.