Report and Recommendations from Mayor re: Civil Service

I don't remember if this was sent around. Someone just sent this to me. I don't have the stomach to read it. We need a history lesson on why civil service rules (and tenure) were established in the first place - way before there were unions. Email me for the pdf. normsco@gmail.com

Norm

Report and Recommendations from Mayor re: Civil Service

When you get a chance, read the attached report.   It's about 27 pages, and lays out Mayor Bloomberg’s plans to change the way Civil Service tests are given, scored and used to hire NYC workers.   

Mayor Bloomberg is proposing a wide variety of changes that, if implemented, would give him more power than ever before.  It’s called the "Workforce Reform Task Force Report" and it includes removing certain titles from civil service designation and combining levels of civil service test scores to enable the city to skip over higher scorers and choose lower scoring candidates at will.  Mayor Bloomberg is also asking that he be allowed to keep employees out of unions so he can avoid paying overtime and have more control over layoffs.

The Mayor also has plans for older workers who might be laid off, not by seniority, but at the will of management.  This is the current practice for non-competitive titles at the Health and Hospitals Corporation. Twenty-year veterans are being laid off and newcomers are retained because the newer employees’ salaries are lower and therefore they cost less.

It appears that the mayor wants to destroy Civil Service as it now exists and replace it with a system more open to corruption (CityTime anyone?)  As many others have pointed out, the reason so many people want to work for NYC is the job security and benefits that come with the job. If the Mayor gets his way, those incentives will be gone.

As you might expect, the members of the Municipal Labor Committee did not respond favorably to the Mayor's proposals, and they will oppose the proposals publicly, legally and politically.