Local 1549 Contends Title Reclassification Will Undermine Merit
By ARI PAUL
Local 1549 of District Council 37 submitted testimony Sept. 16 to the State Civil Service Commission protesting that the Department of Citywide Administrative Services' plan to reduce provisionals, which would move several titles the union represents into the Non-Competitive Class, would reduce standards in two key public-safety jobs.

The local objected to the proposal that Supervising Police Communications Technicians and Police Communications Technicians be taken out of the Competitive Class, "[b]ecause both services are highly critical [to] Public Safety Call Center Operations where merit and fitness are ascertained in every task performed to the benefit of the citizens of New York City."

It asked the Commission to investigate the legality of DCAS's initiative.

More Tests, But for Fewer Titles

The plan aims to reduce the city's more-than 35,000 provisionals to fewer than 10,000, and hold 140 civil service exams per year, up from 120. But it would also subject a variety of titles throughout agencies to fewer city tests by consolidating various levels of a job title and broadbanding several titles into one.

Several union leaders, including Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez, have spoken out against the plan before both the Commission and the City Council Civil Service and Labor Committee, stating that moving jobs into the Non-Competitive Class opened the possibility of corruption and cronyism in city agencies.

DCAS is still awaiting approval by the Commission so it can go forward with its provisional reduction plan, which it is required to do as a result of legislation stemming from a Court of Appeals decision last year.