Buyouts and early retirement stir buzz in government workforces – Times Union

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ALBANY — Legislation that would offer retirement buyouts to state and other government workers is garnering a lot of discussion in New York’s workforce, but Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration has not said whether the incentives will be used to reduce a more than $10 billion deficit.

In response to questions from the Times Union on Monday, the Public Employees Federation issued a statement noting that Cuomo has “not weighed into this discussion yet.”

“The New York state staffing levels are already far to low for us to be overly excited that these levels would drop even more, but always glad for our members who can take advantage of an early retirement incentive,” PEF President Wayne Spence said. “With years of NYS budget and staffing cuts, our members have been doing the work of 2 to 3 people during that same period and certainly deserve to retire early, if made available.”

In some agencies and departments, workers are reporting that managers have floated the prospect of early retirement incentives being offered by September, which is what the legislation calls for. But those bills, in the Senate and Assembly, are stalled at the committee level and have not received public support from the majority leaders.

The legislation would also propose early retirement incentives be offered to school districts and local government entities that elect to participate in the program.

The Cuomo administration may be waiting to see whether a gridlocked Congress will pass legislation providing potentially billions of dollars in aid to New York and other states that were hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Still, New York already had been facing a more than $6 billion deficit before the virus struck the state in early March.

According to PEF, certain members or certain titles designated by management would be eligible for up to three years of additional service credit for an early retirement — with one month of extra service up to an additional 36 months of pension credit. It would also allow eligible members who are age 55 and have 25 or more years of service (rather than 30 years) to be eligible to retire without penalty during the time period they are offered.

PEF contends New York agencies already is operating at staffing levels below what are needed.

“This workforce planning flaw has been exposed by the COVID-19 crisis where the state — through the services rendered by our members — has demonstrated how important having government capacity is in times of crisis,” Spence’s statement reads. “PEF members have been asked to perform herculean tasks without appropriate human or financial support.  The state workforce is stretched way too thin.”

There are exceptions to the buyout offers in the legislation, including any reduction in services that are “required or mandated to protect and care for clients of the state or a participating employer or to assure public health and safety,” or that would “endanger the health or safety of employees of the state or a participating employer.”

Freeman Klopott, a spokesman for the state Division of The Budget, said buyouts are “not being considered at this time.”

The Times Union reported last month that Cuomo said he is hopeful the state can avoid layoffs or furloughs, at a time when more than 30 percent of the state’s workforce had been doing their jobs from home during the coronavirus pandemic, including many with diminished workloads.

At the end of March, Cuomo’s administration deferred for three months the 2 percent raises that roughly 80,000 state workers had been scheduled to receive. The state also has declined to renew numerous service contracts and implemented a hiring freeze.

Figures provided to the Times Union by Cuomo’s office had indicated that 59 agencies, departments, offices and commissions had 36,178 people working remotely out of 119,135 workers.

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