Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and city labor officials announced a tentative agreement Tuesday to amend health benefits for more than 550,000 current and retired city employees, guaranteeing the city $400 million in savings over the next two fiscal years. þþThe agreement between the city and the Municipal Labor Committee, which represents about 100 civil service unions in health care policy negotiations, includes compromises by each side and marks the first time that some city employees will be required to make co-payments for emergency-room, inpatient and ambulatory treatment.þþThe concession by the union reflects the extent to which labor officials appear to embrace the impact the recession has had on projected city tax revenues. By agreeing to the benefit changes, officials said they had persuaded the city to forestall by several months layoffs that the city has said are necessary to balance the budget.þþThe agreement imposes the $50 to $100 co-payments for about one-fifth of current and retired city employees, and eliminates coverage for preventive dental care at certain offices. For most other city employees, the plan would restrict certain hospital, ambulatory and hemodialysis coverage to network providers and would implement several other administrative cost-saving measures.þþThe agreement, once signed, also stipulates the city’s intent this month to lay off about 1,000 provisional employees — those full-time, unionized workers who have not passed the civil service exam and have fewer job protections — and it delays by 90 days another set of layoffs that had been announced for more than 1,000 permanently assigned employees, city and union officials said. þþThe agreement frees $117 million from the Health Insurance Stabilization Fund — a fund the city pays into and administers jointly with labor unions — and allows it to flow into the welfare funds of the 100 or so civil service unions affected by the new health insurance restrictions. þþThe agreement still needs to be signed by city and labor officials before it can become effective. But once it does, it calls for the civil service unions to, in effect, guarantee $200 million in savings in the 2010 fiscal year, which begins July 1, and $200 million in 2011.þþTuesday’s announcement, if ratified, represents a victory for the Bloomberg administration in its quest to force unionized civil service employees, who have inexpensive health insurance, to pay for more of their benefits at a time when the city is scrambling to balance a budget devastated by job losses and the nationwide financial crisis. þþUnion leaders kept the new restrictions on their members’ health coverage limited mostly to co-payments and administrative savings, and they bought another 90 days to negotiate a way to save the 1,000 union jobs that would have been cut. þþThey refused to agree to what the mayor wanted: to create a less generous level of pension benefits that would pay less and require more years of service for future employees. Mr. Bloomberg has said implementing such a new tier would save New York an additional $200 million in the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years.þþ“This deal provides the city with the budgetary relief it needs with a minimum of disruption to our benefits,” Harry Nespoli, the committee chairman, said at the Lower Manhattan headquarters of District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. þþBoth sides said they agreed to continue negotiating. If they cannot reach any further agreement, more than 900 city workers are scheduled to be laid off from the Administration for Children’s Services, 116 workers from the Department of Education, 55 from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and roughly 100 from other agencies, labor officials said Tuesday.þþ
Source: NY Times
