Blocks City's Reductions
Rule Day-Care Shift Can't Affect Benefits

By HOWARD MEGDAL

An arbitrator has ruled that the Bloomberg administration is required to pay daycare workers now under the auspices of the Department of Youth and Community Development the same salary and benefits they received when the program was run by the Administration for Children's Services.

YVETTE CLARKE: 'An ill-conceived idea.'

The city tried to cut costs under the new program, called Out-of-School-Time, by contending that it was not bound by the contract governing its predecessor. District Council 1707 disputed that claim, and arbitrator Richard Adelman set the salaries and benefits at the levels negotiated between the city and DC 1707 prior to the day-care change in September 2005.

Benefit Rights Curtailed

"Each center was doing something different," DC 1707 attorney Thomas Murray said in a Sept. 8 phone interview. "Some were paying same salary, not the benefits. None that I know of were providing health care."

Neither the Mayor's Office nor the Office of Labor Relations returned calls seeking comment on the decision.

Several City Council members joined representatives from District Council 1707 on the steps of City Hall Sept. 7 to criticize the city's shift, which will reduce the number of year-round after-school destinations from 133 to 91, and total day-care programs from 283 to 150, according to the union. The city maintains that there will be 178, down from 186.

DYCD: No Service Loss

DYCD denied that the service would suffer under its auspices, saying through a spokesman that "all children formerly enrolled in ACS programs are given priority status to enroll in an OST program. Parents and caregivers should be assured that their children will participate in programs that offer a range of education and recreational learning opportunities in a safe, supportive and caring environment." A source at DYCD said that the change is "a two-year process," and that more year-round programs may be added in Fiscal Year 2008, which begins next July.

Councilwoman Critical

City Councilwoman Yvette Clarke criticized the change, which she said will reduce the number of after-school day care facilities in Brooklyn from 60 to 7.

"This has been a really ill-conceived idea of the Bloomberg Administration," Ms. Clarke said. "As a child of the day-care system, I implore this administration to reconsider. The parents affected are working-class parents, and their kids need a safe, educational atmosphere. These centers are anchors within our society."

Councilman Charles Barron said Mayor Bloomberg "should be ashamed of himself" for allowing the changes to move forward.

"We have a $6.1 billion surplus," he said. "We have money for the Yankees, money for the Mets, money for the Nets downtown - but no money for the children?"

Silvia Phillipe, who said she had two children in the child-care system, took the Mayor to task for the decision.

"I'm a single parent, and I work full-time. My children, had they not learned to use their brains fully in these programs, it would have been a tragedy. If anyone should be displaced, it's Bloomberg from his office."