A message from PEF Retirees President Jim Carr Lots to lose in battle to repeal health reform


Health care for retirees and seniors


continues to be a political football. The new political majority in the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to repeal the historic health care reform law (Affordable Care Act) signed into law March 23, 2010. They put a higher premium on scoring


political points than on providing 32 million people, including seniors, improved access to health care. The recent action taken to repeal health care reform is a terrible injustice to hard- working Americans, their families, and to senior citizens living on fixed incomes. Although NYSHIP members have


additional protections, repealing the Affordable Care Act would negatively affect most seniors by: • Revoking significant drug discounts


for Medicare beneficiaries who fall into the Part D doughnut hole; • Revoking free annual check ups and


preventive screenings; • Revoking subsidies for employers


who provide health care coverage for their


retirees; and • Revoking Medicaid


options which allow older Americans with chronic conditions to live at home, instead of in nursing homes. If that’s not bad


enough, repeal also would take away: • The right to add our


CARR


young adult children to our family health care


coverage (even for those of us in NYSHIP); • Protection against being dropped by


an insurance company for getting sick; and • Increased efforts to reduce waste,


fraud, and abuse in Medicare. Furthermore, the 2010 law extends


Medicare solvency by 12 years, and also cuts the federal deficit by $230 billion over the first 10 years and more than $1 trillion in the next decade, according to


the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Repealing the law would not only hurt


seniors, it would damage Medicare’s finances and boost our nation’s deficit. Why try to repeal this law? Where’s


the common sense? Does concern for the profits of the health insurance industry trump concern for our welfare? Is this America? Many state and federal issues can


affect us. We must be vigilant and pay attention to what our elected officials say and do. We can’t assume anything we have is


safe. Like it or not, public employees and retirees have become scapegoats for all that’s wrong in these difficult economic times.


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PEF wins title, pay restoration for member caught in ‘contingent permanent’ mix-up


By SHERRY HALBROOK Careful research and perseverance by


PEF’s departments of Civil Service Enforcement and Field Services have paid off for a member who was mistakenly displaced from his position by an employee with less seniority. The member (who asked not to be


identified) is being reinstated to his rightful job title in salary grade 22, and is receiving the pay he lost after being forced to revert to a grade-18 position in March 2008. “If there’s a lesson here, it’s never give


up,” said PEF President Ken Brynien. “If you suspect your rights under the law or the contract have been violated, talk to your PEF steward or field representative. It takes time to investigate and gather the facts to prove your case, but PEF will stand by you and the effort will be worth it if you win.” In this case, the member is receiving


approximately $40,000 in back pay and is now at his proper pay grade. “This was a very confusing case


involving three employees with “contingent-permanent” appointments,” said PEF research associate Arlene Zilkowski, who worked on the case with


Page 10—The Communicator March 2011


PEF field representative Bill Noonan. Two people were appointed on the


same day, April 6, 2006, to the same grade-22 title and position at the same worksite. First, one of the employees received a


permanent appointment to the position, but then was immediately placed on leave from it to serve in a different position that was in the exempt class. Later that day, the second employee


was given a contingent-permanent appointment to the same position that was now “encumbered” by the first employee. In April 2007, the second employee


finished the required one-year of probation in the position, and continued in it until the first employee returned to it March 6, 2008. At that point, the second employee was


forced to revert back to a grade-18 position in which he had been permanent before the April 2006 appointment. However, on December 6, 2007, a third


employee was given a contingent- permanent appointment to a different position in the same grade-22 job title at the same worksite and agency as the other two employees. She had not


PEF Information Line: 1-800-553-2445


completed her one-year probation by March 6, 2008, and the first employee had not even begun her probationary period in the job. After reviewing PEF’s case on behalf of


the second employee, the state Department of Civil Service (DCS) ruled he should have bumped the third employee on March 6, 2008, instead of being forced to retreat to the grade-18 post. “It was difficult and time consuming to


sort this out,” Zilkowski said. “However, all three employees are now in the grade- 22 positions, and the employee who was unfairly penalized is receiving his back pay. “Also, I was assured by DCS


staff they will more closely monitor these contingent- permanent appointments in the future.”


RETIREES IN ACTION


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