NYS UNIFIED COURT SYSTEM BUMPING SCENARIO CALLED "UNSEEMLY PROCESS"

Albany, N.Y.-- Right now, employees of the Unified Court System have more questions than answers.  The next round of layoffs in the state court system will touch off a scramble in which senior employees whose jobs are being eliminated will claim the positions of less-experienced colleagues. In public service circles, it's called bumping.

"It is an unseemly process, which is why we always say it sounds better to say you are going to lay off workers than to actually do it," said Steven Madarasz, a spokesman for the Civil Service Employee Association.  CSEA is the largest of 11 unions representing court employees, counting as members about 6,000 of the courts' 15,200 nonjudicial workers.

"It is a pretty ugly process because who gets the initial layoff notice may well not be the person who actually goes out the door," Mr. Madarasz added.

The so-called "bumping" process is a time-honored feature of state Civil Service Law and will apply to many, but not all, of the employees whose jobs are being cut.  You can read more about the layoff and bumping process here.

Seventy-four full and part-time employees in the Office of Court Administration, most in New York City, are scheduled to leave their jobs by Wednesday. The remaining layoffs will occur in trial and appellate courts throughout the state.

Administrators say the cuts, the first layoffs in the system since 1991, are needed to compensate for a last-minute $70 million reduction imposed by the governor and the Legislature in the Judiciary's 2011-12 budget.

The last layoffs are to be effective June 1, but because of employees' bumping rights, the identities and precise locations of all workers losing jobs may not be known for days or weeks after the May 18 announcement, according to union and court officials.

The elimination of one job could touch off a domino-like effect in which one employee bumps another who, in turn, bumps a third, Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau said in an interview with the New York Law Journal.

In an April 13 notice to our members, CSEA said that thousands of workers could be "displaced" by the process.

Except in rare instances, bumping rights can only be exercised by employees taking positions they qualify for within "layoff units."

Under state law, the 18 layoff units for the court system are defined as employees of the Court of Appeals, each of the four Appellate Division departments, the Third through the Ninth Judicial districts, Nassau County, Suffolk County, courts in New York City, the Office of Court Administration in New York City, the OCA outside of New York City and the state Court of Claims.

In larger geographical judicial districts, the exercise of bumping rights could mean new locations for some employees that are miles from where they now work.

In the Court of Claims, which has offices from Long Island to Buffalo, employees could have to traverse the state to assume new jobs under the bumping rules, said the court's clerk, Robert T. DeCataldo.

NYS Appellate Division Fourth Dept.
Rochester, N.Y. 

And the Fourth Department has offices in both Buffalo and Rochester.

Yesterday was the deadline for all court employees to file "location preference" forms identifying areas where they would be willing to work if their current positions are abolished.

Administrators have indicated that workers who decline reassignments to those locations will not be offered a second choice, CSEA officials said.

Not all employees have bumping rights

Mr. Madarasz said employees who worked their way up the ladder through successive jobs in the court system likely have positions, albeit at a lower salary grade, to which they could fall back. Those jobs must be on a direct promotional line from an eliminated position, according to Civil Service rules.

Employees hired for a specific position are less likely to have a job they can bump a colleague out of, according to Mr. Madarasz, because they have not gone through a succession of job titles and pay grades.

The names of employees being laid off will be placed on a "preferred list," Judge Pfau said. Those workers will get preference over all other potential employees or promotional candidates if the courts rehire workers. The list will be in force for hiring or promotions for the next four years.

Judge Pfau said administrators hope to hire workers back in the next year if they can get contract concessions in upcoming negotiations.

CSEA represented employees of the UCS and the other ten unions in the court system have been working since April 1 without a contract. Under the Triborough Admendment, the terms of the previous four-year contracts will stay in force until new labor pacts are reached.

"Certainly, we are focusing on collective bargaining," Judge Pfau said. "If there are savings that we can achieve through collective bargaining, we hope to do some rehiring."

She declined to go into details of where the courts hope to save money in new contracts.

Meanwhile, workers losing their jobs will get up to 50 days of compensation for unused vacation and leave time and also will be paid for up to 50 days of compensatory time, if employees have accumulated the time off.

The ability of laid-off workers to cash in unused sick time was unclear yesterday.  In most cases, laid-off workers will qualify for unemployment insurance.

In addition, employees who are placed on preferred hiring lists can continue their health insurance coverage for up to one year, provided they pay a share of the premiums. That share is 10 percent for the worker and 25 percent for family coverage.

The Work/Life Assistance Program also will be available to laid-off workers. The program offers professional counseling and other services to employees for personal problems or if they are experiencing health care issues related to children or close relatives.

Timetable for layoffs for UCS employees

• Yesterday: Employees returned their "location preference forms."

• Tuesday, May 17: List will be completed of all employees affected by the layoffs.

• Wednesday, May 18: All employees will be given notice of which positions will be abolished. Bumping begins.

• Wednesday, June 1: Most layoffs are effective.

On May 18, court administrators are expected to announce plans to eliminate 400 to 425 jobs. As of yesterday, they had not finalized their list of cutbacks. No more layoffs are planned after that.