Job Fatality Aid To Families May Grow;

Eye Correction, Sanit
Job Fatality Aid To Families May Grow


With the city flush with a budget surplus, the Bloomberg administration last week proposed a bill to automatically provide continuing health insurance benefits to families of all city Correction Officers and Sanitation Workers killed on the job, THE CHIEF-LEADER has learned.

JOSEPH P. ADDABBO: Hopes to expand scope. The measure would grant surviving spouses and children of those employees the same aid that currently exists for cops and Firefighters. Under the proposal, spouses would receive health benefits until they die; children would be covered until at least age 18.

Quick Action in Council

Civil Service and Labor Committee Chair Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. said during a phone interview last week that he plans to introduce the measure soon. "I will look to entertain this piece of legislation and vote on its approval at the quickest available opportunity," he remarked.

The bill was hailed by the two unions representing the affected titles, the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association and the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association.

"That's long overdue," said USA President Harry Nespoli, noting that the union had lobbied for the legislation for more than 20 years. "I hope that the City Council approves it. Nothing can bring back the member to their family, but it can make it a little easier [to handle] the devastating thing they are going through."

HARRY NESPOLI: 'Long overdue.' The Bloomberg administration's support for the bill - which was introduced six weeks after the latest Sanitation Worker fatality - was a sharp departure from its previous stance concerning the creation of an automatic benefit. In January 2005, the city argued via a letter from its legislative director that a broader proposal to include all city workers was strictly a collective-bargaining issue.

'Codifies Our Practice'

"We have been dealing with these cases on a case-by-case basis," said Stu Loeser, Mayor Bloomberg's chief spokesman, during a Jan. 18 phone interview. "So what this legislation would do is just codify what our practice has been for Correction Officers and Sanitation Workers."

Asked why the administration finally decided to make the benefit automatic, Mr. Loeser responded, "We decided that it's in essence our policy anyways, so let's just formalize it."

NORMAN SEABROOK: Honor 'invaluable services.' Mr. Addabbo welcomed the proposal, which he called a step in the right direction. He has long urged the Bloomberg administration to provide health coverage to the surviving spouses of all civilian employees. "My point of view will always be that benefit should always be extended to every city worker who dies in the line of duty," he said last week.

Mr. Loeser noted that the majority of non-FDNY and NYPD fatalities have occurred in the two titles the bill covers. "There are other cases, but those are rarer and we can still handle them with one-person bills," he remarked.

In the past, the city has provided health benefits to surviving family members of Sanitation Workers, Correction Officers, and civilian employees on an individual basis.

Uncertainty Until Now

But that process has caused the grieving families some unnecessary anxiety, as they have to wait for the Mayor to introduce the legislation amending the current law, union officials noted.

"It's a real awkward situation when the union has to sit down with widows and children who lost their father or spouse and tell them we are putting it before the Mayor," he said. "They just don't understand, because they hear other agencies have it."

Mr. Nespoli noted that three Sanitation Workers have died on the job since 2005.

The city's increased population, he contended, has made waste-removal a more hazardous job. "Every job is dangerous," he said. "We are out there every single day in the street; unfortunately, the city is more crowded."

During his first campaign for Mayor, Mr. Bloomberg told reporters he believed Sanitation Workers had the most dangerous job in the city, comments which were derided at the time by the city's other uniformed forces. He was referring to the fact that they had a higher injury rate than other uniformed workers.

Have Had to Wait

As for continuing health benefits, it took the city close to two months to provide health insurance to the widow and child of Department of Transportation worker Nicky Antico, who was killed in September 2005 by a hit-and-run driver while repaving a street in Staten Island.

More recently, Sanitation Worker Rafael Concepcion died Dec. 15 when he was thrown from the cab of his truck after his co-worker lost control while rounding a corner.

Mr. Concepcion, 36, is survived by his partner, Evelyn Curet, and two daughters Kateleen, 7, and Brianna, 1. "The law suggests that she's not getting medical benefits as we speak," said a source familiar with the situation. "I don't know what the reality is."

Last January, Mr. Addabbo proposed legislation providing health insurance benefits to the surviving spouses of all city workers. Mayor Bloomberg, however, opposed the broad bill, which a Council official said could cost as much as $1 billion.

'Can't Measure in Dollars'

Mr. Addabbo had stressed that under that bill the Mayor would have full discretion over who received the benefit. That stipulation, Mr. Addabbo said, would provide the city financial protection in case there was another deadly terrorist attack or some type of natural disaster. "I've always said you can't use a dollar sign when you talk about benefits going to survivors of a deceased city worker," the Queens lawmaker added.

The city also opposed the bill based on a "policy" matter. "The administration believes the City Council has no authority to unilaterally grant health benefits to city employees," said Karen E. Meara, the city's Director of Legislative Affairs at the time. The legislation, the memo added, "would be inconsistent with the Taylor Law, which vests in the Mayor the exclusive power and authority to bargain and negotiate for agreements with employee organizations concerning terms and conditions of employment."

Those issues, however, appear to have since been cleared up. The legislation proposed by the Bloomberg administration last week states that the bill will help to "ease the financial burdens" of the families of deceased city workers, as well as demonstrate the city's appreciation of their dedicated service.

"I believe this legislative initiative is very admirable considering that municipal workers in the uniformed community do not take these jobs to get rich, but rather to perform an invaluable service on behalf of the entire City of New York," said COBA President Norman Seabrook in a statement.