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Public Employee Press
New law guarantees the
right to union presence during employer interrogation In
a victory for DC 37 members and all public sector workers in New York State, on
July 18 Gov. Eliot Spitzer signed legislation that provides all employees, regardless
of their civil service status, the right to representation at any meeting with
managers or supervisors when it appears that questioning may lead to disciplinary
proceedings. The DC 37 Legal Dept. began working with the unions
Political Action and Research and Negotiations departments to craft the bill after
the states highest court ruled earlier this year that public employees do
not have an inherent right to such representation under the Taylor Law on public
sector labor relations. The legislation was sponsored by Assembly member Peter
J. Abbate and Sen. Joseph E. Robach. The new protection is similar to
the Weingarten Rights of private sector employees. Employees subject
to Section 75 of the state Civil Service Law have similar protections, and the
Citywide Contract contains similar protections for the permanent employees it
covers. But the Court of Appeals decision meant that provisional, probationary,
noncompetitive or labor class employees would not have had the right of union
representation in disciplinary interviews. The new law makes it an improper
practice for a public employer to refuse a public employee the right, upon the
employees demand, to representation by the employees union when it
appears that he or she may be subject to disciplinary action. If the employee
requests representation, the employer must give the employee a reasonable period
of time to obtain such representation. It is important to remember that the employee
must request union representation at the time of the employers questioning. | |