MEETING WITH THE NEW ADMINISTRATION
On Monday, December 18th, the seven CSEA local Presidents and Susan Radosh, CSEA Deputy Director of Contract Administration, met with Chief Judge Rowan Wilson, Chief Administrative Judge Joseph Zayas and First Deputy Chief Administrative Judge Norman St. George in NYC.
It was a very positive meeting from start to finish with both sides recognizing that we should be working as a team on issues that affect our members. We were happy to represent you at the table to talk about topics such as Paid Parental Leave, telecommuting, flexible work schedules including possible compressed work weeks, staffing shortages and retention issues and glad to see how receptive they were. The Chief Judge stated that the proposed budget submitted to the Legislature includes, among other things, historic additional monies to “staff up” the court system. We look forward to working with the new administration to address issues that are important to you. Of course, as we learn more on these important topics, we will share the information.
PAID PARENTAL LEAVE:
Negotiations with OCA began yesterday regarding a paid parental leave policy for UCS employees. I am happy to report we had a very productive first meeting. There are still some details to work out and to that end, we have scheduled our next negotiations for January 17th. If all goes well this policy would be in effect April 1, 2024.
CHANGES TO COURT REPORTER SERIES
CSEA and the other court unions were informed by UCS on Wednesday, that UCS has created a 1-year Court Reporter Trainee, SG 22 title, and has changed the Court Reporter 1, SG 24 from competitive to non-competitive jurisdictional status.
If you are currently a Court Reporter 1, even if on probation, you will remain competitive. In addition, the Senior and Principal Court Reporter title remain competitive.
CSEA has registered a complaint with UCS regarding the change in Court Reporter 1 jurisdiction from competitive to non-competitive. This change limits the disciplinary rights of those future employees appointed to this now non-competitive title, in as much as they will now have to serve for 5 years before they will be entitled to disciplinary rights under Article 12 of the contract. In addition, there may be needed changes to the Chief Judges rules to make them eligible to sit for competitive exams for the Senior Court Reporter. CSEA knows firsthand how hard our Court Reporters and Senior Court Reporters work and welcome the creation of the Court Reporter Trainee title as a conduit from the Court Reporter schools into the Court System. But changing the jurisdictional classification of the Court Reporter 1 from a competitive title to a non-competitive one is a mistake and we have voiced our opposition to it at the highest level of the Court Administration. CSEA will keep members informed of any further developments.
LIGHTS ON THE LAKE 2023 – TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE
We still have a few tickets left to New York’s premier drive-through holiday light show. Every year our brothers and sisters from CSEA Local 834 proudly setup and maintain two miles of breathtaking displays for all to enjoy. CSEA Local 334 would like to offer our members complimentary passes to enjoy the display. If you would like one of the remaining tickets RSVP to ian@csealocal334.com and include your name, member # and mailing address, one ticket per member please. This year’s tickets are good for one time use any night through January 12th, 2024.
MEMBERSHIP NUMBERS
Several of you have indicated in the last few weeks that you do not know your member numbers and/or have provided the Local with your EBF ID# when your member ID was necessary. Member ID’s generally begin with the 123 number series, EBF ID’s generally will begin with 055. If you do not know your member number please contact CSEA member solutions at 1-(800)-342-4146. If you do not know your EBF ID# please call CSEA EBF at 1-(518)-782-1500. Once you have those numbers, that are specific to you, I strongly encourage all members to download the MyCSEA app in order to always have your information at your fingertips. Links for apple and android are listed below.