Preview
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023
March 31, 1966
STATEMENT OF PUBLIC MEMBERS OF TRIPARTITE PANEL
TO IMPROVE MUNICIPAL COLLECTIVE BARGAINING PROCEDURES
The Public Members strongly endorse the Memorandum of
Agreement which was developed by the Mayor'sTripartite Panel
with the helpful assistance of the Labor Management Institute
of the American Arbitration Association. We regard it to be a
precedent-making document, well designed to remove the important
causes of conflict between the City and its employees.
Basically, there are three reasons for the disorder that
has characterized the relationships between the City of New
York and the organizations representing its employees. First,
there has been a conspicuous absence, in the past, of carefully
administered and supervised procedures for effectuation of the
proclaimed policy of collective bargaining.
Second, there has been a lack of clear understanding on the
matters appropriate for bargaining and of the limitations on the
parties'
power to conclude agreements.
Third, much of the difficulty in the past has been due to
the absence of definite procedures established in advance for
dealing with deadlocks in bargaining.
This Memorandum of Agreement is designed to remedy these
super-
defici'encies. It establishes a new independent agency to
vise bargaining procedures and to ensure that the obligations
and are ful-
undertaken by the employee organizations the City
filled.
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023
It identifies the subjects on which is appro-
bargaining
priate and distinguishes between those on which the parties are
empowered to make final agreements and those on which they can
jointly recommend a course of action to independent governmental
bodies.
It establishes a bargaining time-table and provides, in
for mediation .if recommen-
advance, and, necessary, fact-finding
dations for a fair disposition of the dispute. These procedures
will permit consideration of disputes by impartial persons in an
atmosphere free of strike deadline pressures.
One of the greatest merits of the document is that although
it is the product of agreement between the and the re-
City
presentatives of the employee it is to be em-
organizations,
bodied in a City law. The parties themselves have created a
structure for the orderly conduct of their relationship. If they
fail to adhere faithfully to its procedures, if they reject
fact-finding recoÀmendations, they imperil the continued
existence of the Memorandum and forfeit the benefits flowing
from it. If this occurs the inevitable result will be the re-
placement of this collective bargaining system by a more coercive
and less democratic method of fixing the terms and conditions of
public employment.
The Memorandum of Agreement, by specific terms bars the
right to strike during the life of a contract, during negotiations
for a new contract, during Dispute Panel proceedings and for
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023
30 days after recommendations are made by such a panel. Our
professional judgment and the national experience, generally,
with fact-finding procedures convince us that these agreed-upon
procedures will result in the peaceful settlement of disputes and
make strikes unnecessary.
we observe that strikes of public employees con-
Finally,
tinue to be barred by existing state laws. We are aware that
changes in these laws are under consideration. The problem of
strikes of public employees is a matter for legislative policy.
We have sought by agreement to develop procedures designed to
make strikes unnecessary and have left to other forums the
problem of dealing with other contingencies.
The Public Members congratulate the representatives of the
and the employee organizations who negotiated this agree-
City
ment. It represents the exercise of imaginative and unstinting
devotion to the common goal of labor peace in this City.
Saul Wallen, Chairman
Philip A. Carey, S. J.
Professor Vern Countryman
Peter Seitz
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023
PREAMBLE
This memorandum sets forth the procedures which
the signatories hereto deem to be neces-
unanimously
and desirable for the effectuation of collec-
sary
tive bargaining, and of the peaceful settlement of
disputes, between the City and the organizations
representing its employees.
parties' Memo-
Underlying the agreement on this
randum is their commitment to the philosophy and
practice of the peaceful settlement of disputes in
order to prevent strikes or other interruptions of
service. The procedures set forth herein are designed
to accomplish this result.
The and the employee organizations signa-
City
tory hereto affirm their intent to negotiate in
good faith on all matters within the scope of col-
lective bargaining and to settle such matters at
the bargaining table, not in other forums.
The signatories hereto unanimously recommend
that the substance of the provisions of the en-
closed Memorandum be enacted into law
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023
-2-
by an Executive Order superseding Executive
Order 49, and, to the extent necessary, by a
Local Law, both of which shall be uniformly
applicable to all organizations representing
City employees.
The City and the employee organizations
signatory hereto solemnly pledge themselves
to adhere and give full faith compliance to
such Executive Order and Local Law so as to
achieve the settlement of disputes by the
peaceful procedures which they will provide,
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023
-3-
The·
Parties hereto agree as follows:
Collective is the most effec-
A. bargaining
tive means in our society for matching employer
requirements with employee needs. A bar-
healthy
gaining relationship provides the maximum promise
that labor-management disputes will be resolved by
peaceful to the great advantage of the
measures,
disputants and, in the case of public employment,
to the even more important advantage of the public.
B. Because the rights enjoyed employ-
normally by
ees in private employment are not available by law
to employees in public employment, there is the
greater need to ensure that collective bargaining
takes and that provision be made for effec-
place,
tive procedures for the peaceful resolution of dif-
ferences when bargaining results in an impasse.
The procedures set forth herein are designed to meet
this greater need. These procedures offer positive
assurance: (a) that employees will be treated fairly;
that the will be able to dis-
(b) City faithfully
charge its obligations as without inter-
employer,
ruption to the public services it furnishes; and
(c) that the people of the City will be protected,
as they have a legal and moral right to be, in their
access to essential public services.
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023
-4-
I. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING POLICY
It is the policy of the City of New York to
engage in collective bargaining and enter into
written agreements with employee organizations
holding certificates entitling them to represent
City employees in designated bargaining units for
the purpose of collective bargaining on the subjects
and pursuant to the conditions set forth in Section
II below.
II. SCOPE OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
The and certified employee organiza-
A. City
tions shall engage in collective bargaining on
wages (including but not limited to wage rates,
pensions, health and welfare benefits, uniform
allowances and shift premiums), hours, and working
conditions subject to the provisions of Section II-B
below and shall negotiate on these matters in good
faith in accordance with the procedures hereinafter
set forth.
B. It is the right of the City, acting through
its agencies, to determine the standards of services
to be offered its determine the stand-
by agencies;
ards of selection for employment; direct its employees;
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023
-5-
take disciplinary action; relieve its employees
from duty because of lack of work or for other
legitimate reasons; maintain the efficiency of
governmental operations; determine the methods,
means and personnel by which government operations
are to be conducted; determine the content of job
classifications; take all necessary actions to carry
out its mission in emergencies; and exercise complete
control and discretion over its organization and
the technology of performing its work. The City's
decisions on these matters are not within the scope
of collective bargaining, but, notwithstanding the
above, questions concerning the practical impact
that decisions on the above matters have on employees,
such as questions of work load or manning, are within
the scope of collective bargaining. Assignment of
employees to duties substantially different from
those stated in their job classification may be the
subject of grievance procedures.
The City and certified employee organizations
shall bargain and conclude final agreements on mat-
ters within the scope of collective bargaining on
which the Mayor or heads under his juris-
agency
diction have authority to make final decisions,
notwithstanding that such matters are governed by
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023
-6-
rules and regulations promul-
orders, previously
gated by the Mayor or such agency heads.
The City and certified employee organizations
within the col-
shall bargain on matters scope of
lective bargaining which require action by a body,
agency or official whose actions are either not
subject to or are not fully subject to the Mayor's
jurisdiction or control (except promotional lists and
examinations
which shall be the subject solely of grievance)
provided that the bargainingon such matters shall
be directed to the question whether or not to request
such body, agency or official to take such action.
If such a matter goes to a Dispute Panel under See-
tion VI-E hereof and the Panel determines and recom-
mends that such action be taken, it shall make such
recommendation, not to the parties, but directly to
such body, agency or official. The Dispute Panel,
as part of its recommendations, may in each case
in the light of the facts of the parti-
recommend,
cular dispute, whether completion and execution of
the agreement shall be contingent upon favorable
action by such body, agency or official, or whether
it shall precede such action. If completion and
execution of the agreement is contingent upon such
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023
-7-
favorable action and such action is denied, any
alternative recommendations made by a Dispute Panel
shall not exceed in total cost to the City the cost
of the original recommendations.
The shall continue to bargain on all mat-
City
ters within the scope of collective bargaining with
organizations representing employees in the Police,
Fire, Sanitation and Correction Services.
The City shall continue to bargain with employee
organizations representing Career and Salary Plan
employees on those matters within the scope of col-
lective bargaining that are unique to particular
departments or particular classes of employees, such
as wages, salary grades, shift differentials, welfare
funds and working conditions.
The City shall bargain on city-wide issues within
the scope of collective bargaining relating to Career
and Salary Plan employees, such as overtime and time
and leave rules which must be uniform for all Career
and Salary Plan employees, but only with an employee
organization or council or of employee organi-
group
zations representing more than 50% of all Career
and Salary Plan amployees. The City shall bargain
on pensions for Career and Salary Plan employees only
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023
-8-
with an employee organization or
Preview
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023 March 31, 1966 STATEMENT OF PUBLIC MEMBERS OF TRIPARTITE PANEL TO IMPROVE MUNICIPAL COLLECTIVE BARGAINING PROCEDURES The Public Members strongly endorse the Memorandum of Agreement which was developed by the Mayor'sTripartite Panel with the helpful assistance of the Labor Management Institute of the American Arbitration Association. We regard it to be a precedent-making document, well designed to remove the important causes of conflict between the City and its employees. Basically, there are three reasons for the disorder that has characterized the relationships between the City of New York and the organizations representing its employees. First, there has been a conspicuous absence, in the past, of carefully administered and supervised procedures for effectuation of the proclaimed policy of collective bargaining. Second, there has been a lack of clear understanding on the matters appropriate for bargaining and of the limitations on the parties' power to conclude agreements. Third, much of the difficulty in the past has been due to the absence of definite procedures established in advance for dealing with deadlocks in bargaining. This Memorandum of Agreement is designed to remedy these super- defici'encies. It establishes a new independent agency to vise bargaining procedures and to ensure that the obligations and are ful- undertaken by the employee organizations the City filled. FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023 It identifies the subjects on which is appro- bargaining priate and distinguishes between those on which the parties are empowered to make final agreements and those on which they can jointly recommend a course of action to independent governmental bodies. It establishes a bargaining time-table and provides, in for mediation .if recommen- advance, and, necessary, fact-finding dations for a fair disposition of the dispute. These procedures will permit consideration of disputes by impartial persons in an atmosphere free of strike deadline pressures. One of the greatest merits of the document is that although it is the product of agreement between the and the re- City presentatives of the employee it is to be em- organizations, bodied in a City law. The parties themselves have created a structure for the orderly conduct of their relationship. If they fail to adhere faithfully to its procedures, if they reject fact-finding recoÀmendations, they imperil the continued existence of the Memorandum and forfeit the benefits flowing from it. If this occurs the inevitable result will be the re- placement of this collective bargaining system by a more coercive and less democratic method of fixing the terms and conditions of public employment. The Memorandum of Agreement, by specific terms bars the right to strike during the life of a contract, during negotiations for a new contract, during Dispute Panel proceedings and for FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023 30 days after recommendations are made by such a panel. Our professional judgment and the national experience, generally, with fact-finding procedures convince us that these agreed-upon procedures will result in the peaceful settlement of disputes and make strikes unnecessary. we observe that strikes of public employees con- Finally, tinue to be barred by existing state laws. We are aware that changes in these laws are under consideration. The problem of strikes of public employees is a matter for legislative policy. We have sought by agreement to develop procedures designed to make strikes unnecessary and have left to other forums the problem of dealing with other contingencies. The Public Members congratulate the representatives of the and the employee organizations who negotiated this agree- City ment. It represents the exercise of imaginative and unstinting devotion to the common goal of labor peace in this City. Saul Wallen, Chairman Philip A. Carey, S. J. Professor Vern Countryman Peter Seitz FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023 PREAMBLE This memorandum sets forth the procedures which the signatories hereto deem to be neces- unanimously and desirable for the effectuation of collec- sary tive bargaining, and of the peaceful settlement of disputes, between the City and the organizations representing its employees. parties' Memo- Underlying the agreement on this randum is their commitment to the philosophy and practice of the peaceful settlement of disputes in order to prevent strikes or other interruptions of service. The procedures set forth herein are designed to accomplish this result. The and the employee organizations signa- City tory hereto affirm their intent to negotiate in good faith on all matters within the scope of col- lective bargaining and to settle such matters at the bargaining table, not in other forums. The signatories hereto unanimously recommend that the substance of the provisions of the en- closed Memorandum be enacted into law FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023 -2- by an Executive Order superseding Executive Order 49, and, to the extent necessary, by a Local Law, both of which shall be uniformly applicable to all organizations representing City employees. The City and the employee organizations signatory hereto solemnly pledge themselves to adhere and give full faith compliance to such Executive Order and Local Law so as to achieve the settlement of disputes by the peaceful procedures which they will provide, FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023 -3- The· Parties hereto agree as follows: Collective is the most effec- A. bargaining tive means in our society for matching employer requirements with employee needs. A bar- healthy gaining relationship provides the maximum promise that labor-management disputes will be resolved by peaceful to the great advantage of the measures, disputants and, in the case of public employment, to the even more important advantage of the public. B. Because the rights enjoyed employ- normally by ees in private employment are not available by law to employees in public employment, there is the greater need to ensure that collective bargaining takes and that provision be made for effec- place, tive procedures for the peaceful resolution of dif- ferences when bargaining results in an impasse. The procedures set forth herein are designed to meet this greater need. These procedures offer positive assurance: (a) that employees will be treated fairly; that the will be able to dis- (b) City faithfully charge its obligations as without inter- employer, ruption to the public services it furnishes; and (c) that the people of the City will be protected, as they have a legal and moral right to be, in their access to essential public services. FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023 -4- I. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING POLICY It is the policy of the City of New York to engage in collective bargaining and enter into written agreements with employee organizations holding certificates entitling them to represent City employees in designated bargaining units for the purpose of collective bargaining on the subjects and pursuant to the conditions set forth in Section II below. II. SCOPE OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING The and certified employee organiza- A. City tions shall engage in collective bargaining on wages (including but not limited to wage rates, pensions, health and welfare benefits, uniform allowances and shift premiums), hours, and working conditions subject to the provisions of Section II-B below and shall negotiate on these matters in good faith in accordance with the procedures hereinafter set forth. B. It is the right of the City, acting through its agencies, to determine the standards of services to be offered its determine the stand- by agencies; ards of selection for employment; direct its employees; FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023 -5- take disciplinary action; relieve its employees from duty because of lack of work or for other legitimate reasons; maintain the efficiency of governmental operations; determine the methods, means and personnel by which government operations are to be conducted; determine the content of job classifications; take all necessary actions to carry out its mission in emergencies; and exercise complete control and discretion over its organization and the technology of performing its work. The City's decisions on these matters are not within the scope of collective bargaining, but, notwithstanding the above, questions concerning the practical impact that decisions on the above matters have on employees, such as questions of work load or manning, are within the scope of collective bargaining. Assignment of employees to duties substantially different from those stated in their job classification may be the subject of grievance procedures. The City and certified employee organizations shall bargain and conclude final agreements on mat- ters within the scope of collective bargaining on which the Mayor or heads under his juris- agency diction have authority to make final decisions, notwithstanding that such matters are governed by FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023 -6- rules and regulations promul- orders, previously gated by the Mayor or such agency heads. The City and certified employee organizations within the col- shall bargain on matters scope of lective bargaining which require action by a body, agency or official whose actions are either not subject to or are not fully subject to the Mayor's jurisdiction or control (except promotional lists and examinations which shall be the subject solely of grievance) provided that the bargainingon such matters shall be directed to the question whether or not to request such body, agency or official to take such action. If such a matter goes to a Dispute Panel under See- tion VI-E hereof and the Panel determines and recom- mends that such action be taken, it shall make such recommendation, not to the parties, but directly to such body, agency or official. The Dispute Panel, as part of its recommendations, may in each case in the light of the facts of the parti- recommend, cular dispute, whether completion and execution of the agreement shall be contingent upon favorable action by such body, agency or official, or whether it shall precede such action. If completion and execution of the agreement is contingent upon such FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023 -7- favorable action and such action is denied, any alternative recommendations made by a Dispute Panel shall not exceed in total cost to the City the cost of the original recommendations. The shall continue to bargain on all mat- City ters within the scope of collective bargaining with organizations representing employees in the Police, Fire, Sanitation and Correction Services. The City shall continue to bargain with employee organizations representing Career and Salary Plan employees on those matters within the scope of col- lective bargaining that are unique to particular departments or particular classes of employees, such as wages, salary grades, shift differentials, welfare funds and working conditions. The City shall bargain on city-wide issues within the scope of collective bargaining relating to Career and Salary Plan employees, such as overtime and time and leave rules which must be uniform for all Career and Salary Plan employees, but only with an employee organization or council or of employee organi- group zations representing more than 50% of all Career and Salary Plan amployees. The City shall bargain on pensions for Career and Salary Plan employees only FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 11/17/2023 04:58 PM INDEX NO. 452305/2023 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 23 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 11/17/2023 -8- with an employee organization or