Public Employee Press

State presses NYC to move civil service lists, OKs DCAS 5-year plan

The New York State Civil Service Commission has approved the five-year plan submitted by the Dept. of Citywide Administrative Services in March to comply with Civil Service Law by sharply reducing the number of provisional employees on the city payroll.

“Under the law, the approval of the plan allows us to negotiate due process rights for provisional employees,” said Evelyn Seinfeld, associate director of the District Council 37 Research and Negotiations Dept.

The Sept. 22 decision did not amount to blanket approval of the methods DCAS proposed to use to cut backon provisionals — consolidating jobtitles and reclassifying hundreds of competitive positions into the noncompetitive class.

Case-by-case
In approving the plan, the CSC made it clear that any reclassifications out of competitive class titles that DCAS requests will have to be judged on a case-by-case basis with union input through the normal hearing process.

District Council 37 had opposed the DCAS methodology and is analyzing the potential impact of the state com­mission’s decision on members.

Union leaders’ testimony at a CSC hearing in Albany in June appeared to have influenced the commission to press the city for specifics on how it would implement the plan before the commission would accept it. DCAS replied with a detailed timetable.

DCAS schedule “unlikely”
At a hearing Sept. 16, DC 37 Research and Negotiations Director Dennis Sullivan charged that the DCAS timeline “seems highly unlikely” and “would take considerable staff — staff which DCAS does not have.”

Local 154 President Juan Fernández, Social Service Employees Union Local 371 President Faye Moore and Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez, as well as other Municipal Labor Committee union leaders, offered testimony at the hearing.

“There were a number of positive effects within a decision we basically opposed,” said Sullivan.

The CSC is pressing DCAS to make permanent appointments from certified lists as required by state law, a longtime union goal.

The decision also calls for DCASto provide baseline totals of competitive class and provisional employees within the next 30 days and to set performance targets for reducing the number of provisionals on the city payroll.

For many years DCAS has failed tooffer enough civil service exams, swelling the number of provisionals.

In many cases, the DC 37 Legal Dept. has successfully sued to force the city to offer civil service tests, and DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts continues to press DCAS to offer more exams and promote workers from the lists.