The Contract Administration Department provides support for all contract negotiations, coordinates negotiations on issues that arise between contracts, and assists Field Services in implementing the agreements. The Department is PEF’s liaison with the Governor’s Office of Employees Relations. We coordinate the contract grievance process at Step Four and provide technical advice and assistance to Field Services at other steps of the contract grievance process. The Department also serves as the "institutional memory" for PEF negotiations and grievance history. Finally, the Department provides staff support for the Article 24 Statewide Labor/Management Committee, and other contract committees including the Joint Committee on Health Benefits, the Workers' Compensation Committee, the Employment Security Committee and the Albany Parking Committee.

The Department coordinates contract negotiations for all units represented by PEF. We assist the negotiating teams in developing bargaining strategies and proposals, provide staff support at bargaining tables, and review all agreements before they are sent out for ratification.

Over the past year the primary activity of the Department involved providing extensive support for the PEF Contract Team in PEF’s negotiations with the state over the 1999-2003 PS&T Unit Agreement.

We are also working closely with Field Services on a first contract for the new unit of professional employees of the City of Glens Falls. These negotiations have been complicated recently by the City’s plan to privatize the Waste Water Treatment Plant where one third of the current bargaining unit works. The City is negotiating with us over this anticipated loss of unit work.

During the last year, Contract Administration has also provided support to Field Services as needed in successfully concluded negotiations of successor agreements with the Canal Corporation, the Coxsackie Regional Medical Unit. We are currently providing as needed support to Field Services in negotiations of successor agreements with the Albany Housing Authority and the Albany County Probation Department.

Contract Administration also provides technical advice and support to divisions negotiating shift and pass day bidding agreements for nurses pursuant to Article 25.2(c) of the PS&T Unit Agreement. A recent successful example of this is the SUNY-Stony Brook agreement for nurses working at the University Hospital. This comprehensive agreement addressed long-standing concerns about unit-by-unit variation in the manner in which shifts, pass days and vacations were bid at Stony Brook. It established a process by which shift and pass days are bid by seniority within unit and guaranteed that all nurses will be able to take at least two vacation weeks off each year while protecting the seniority rights of more senior nurses.

Contract Administration provides support to the Article 19 Albany Parking Committee and to representatives negotiating with their agencies over local parking agreements. PEF recognizes accessible parking as one of the most import quality of work life issues to PS&T unit members who work in downtown Albany. In the last year, improper practice charges and grievances have been filed in order to gain access to accurate information on Albany downtown parking and to uphold our members’ contractual rights. We are also pursuing our goal of increasing the amount of affordable parking. Recently, the state agreed to allocate all parking spaces in a new 2300-space parking garage to State employees. That garage is scheduled to open in August 2000.

Contract Administration is also available to assist PS&T members when parking is an issue for agency/local parking and labor/management committee. We provide support during negotiation of local parking agreements, improper practice charges, and contract grievances.

The recently-negotiated 1999-2003 contract incorporates the Memorandum of Agreement on Telecommuting that was originally signed by PEF and GOER in 1994. Upon ratification of the new PS&T unit agreement agencies should be encouraged to expand existing telecommuting programs where feasible and new pilots and programs should be implemented.

The Memorandum of Agreement establishes the framework for telecommuting programs. Contract Administration is available to assist with the implementation of these programs. Copies of agreements necessary for local/agency implementation of a telecommuting program should be submitted to Contract Administration for review prior to final agreement.

The PEF Joint Committee on Health Benefits (JCHB) is authorized under Article 9 of the PEF/NYS contract to work with the appropriate state agencies to review and oversee the various health plans available to employees represented by PEF.

The Health Benefits staff responded to hundreds of telephone inquiries over the past year. The majority of inquiries concerned enrollment and benefit information with respect to the New York State Health Insurance Program (NYSHIP), as well as ongoing contract negotiations. The unit also referred hundreds of callers to their agency Health Benefits Administrators, the Empire Plan insurers and administrators, GHI and Davis Vision.

As part of the Department’s responsibilities to monitor NYSHIP, staff worked with state agencies, designated representatives of health care plans and, as needed, staff of other state employee unions to resolve problems and formulate proposals for improving the administration of NYSHIP and specific health care plans.

• Supported PEF Contract Team with health benefits negotiations;

• Expanded information available to members logging on to the Health Benefits section of the PEF website;

• Recommended improvements to the on-line participating provider directories maintained by GHI and United HealthCare (UHC), which were later implemented;

• Currently participating in the selection of a vendor to insure and administer the NYS Dental Program beginning January 1, 2001;

• Currently participating in the review and evaluation of the HMOs requesting inclusion or continued participation in the New York State Health Insurance Program in the year 2001;

• Reviewed and analyzed the Empire Plan rate renewals for the year 2000;

• Monitoring UHC's development of a network of urgent care facilities for Empire Plan enrollees;

• Prepared and/or reviewed health care plan informational materials including news briefs for the Health Benefits section of the PEF web site, articles for the Communicator, the 2000 Health Insurance Choices guide and rate flyer, and issues of the HMO Report and the Empire Plan Report; and,

• Perform ongoing review and monitoring of health plan vendors' performance.