Public Employee Press

NYC Transit workers gain parental leave in historic deal

Under an agreement between the union and NYC Transit, professional and technical workers represented by Local 375 will be entitled to two weeks of paid parental leave following the birth of a child.

The pact will also allow surviving spouses who are not yet eligible for Medicare to remain covered by the health insurance plan of a member who passes away.

Thanks to the agreement, retirees will now to be fully reimbursed for deductions from their Social Security checks to cover their Medicare Part B premiums, a benefit long enjoyed by tens of thousands of other DC 37 beneficiaries. Until now, the TA only provided a partial reimbursement of a few hundred dollars.

"This is an historic deal that will really help out our members at the Transit Authority and their families," said Claude Fort, president of Civil Service Technical Employees Guild Local 375. "The agreement has new benefits, particularly parental leave, that we hope to extend to other members," Fort said.

Fort worked on the agreement with Assistant Director Lisa Riccio of the union's Research and Negotiations Dept. and Janakkuma Patel, president of the local's chapter at the TA.

The agreement was negotiated under a provision of the current economic agreement that allows bargaining units to determine how to use an additional compensation equivalent to .52 percent of the payroll on Dec. 31, 2011.

— GNH