CSEA Ratifies Pay Deal by 16-1 Margin

By REUVEN BLAU

Members of the Civil Service Association last week resoundingly ratified a contract that will provide 13-percent raises over four years and double the location pay for workers assigned to the downstate region, with 29,755 for and 1,839 against.

DANNY DONOHUE: Elated by wide margin.

"The strength of the ratification demonstrates that our rank and file fully supports the agreement," said Danny Donohue, president of the Civil Service Employees Association.

Less-Than 50% Return

Nonetheless, fewer than half of the CSEA's more-than 70,000 state executive branch employees voted. "The ballots went out during the holiday season to move the process along as quickly as possible," said CSEA's chief spokesman, Stephen Madarasz. "That's probably the primary factor."

The contract, which also includes longevity boosts and more money for the Joint Safety and Health Program, will likely set the financial pattern for the other state public-employee unions, which are all working under contracts that expired April 1, 2007.

CSEA members will receive a 3-percent raise retroactive to April 1, 2007. The deal also includes two more 3-percent hikes effective April 1, 2008 and April 1, 2009 and a 4-percent raise on April 1, 2010.

Based on the agreement, effective April 1, 2008 the annual downstate location pay differential would increase to $1,850, up from $1,302. That figure would jump to $3,026 on Oct. 1, 2008. The Mid-Hudson adjustment would increase to $1,000 on April 1, 2008 and to $1,513 on Oct. 1, 2008.

The deal also includes some "modest" increases in members' health care costs, according to the state. The basic medical deductible will go from $225 per person to $250. Co-pays for emergency room visits and hospital outpatient surgeries will increase by $10. Some of those hikes were offset, however, by several health-care benefit enhancements for specific procedures and new treatments and tests, CSEA officials said.