Public Employee Press

WTC deadlines stretched to ’08

New York State is giving responders to the 9/11 terrorist attacks an extra year to let the Workers’ Compensation Board and the pension system know that they worked or volunteered at the disaster site.

Filing preserves their eligibility to claim benefits if they become ill in the future.

Participants in the rescue, recovery and cleanup now have until Aug. 14, 2008, to file a WTC-12 form with the Workers’ Compensation Board and until June 14, 2008, to register with theirpension system. Gov. Eliot Spitzer signed the bill this summer.

DC 37 was directly responsible for winning this victory for workers, said Safety and Health Dept. Director Lee Clarke.

“We were critical of the original deadline and were extremely concerned that it was not well-advertised by city agencies. Our political action team at DC 37 worked with the state AFL-CIO to get the bill introduced, passed and signed,” Clarke said.

Copies of the WTC-12 form may be downloaded directly from the DC 37 Web site at www.dc37.net.