Meeting
Notes from the August 10th Long Island meeting of
The Business Council's Labor & Human Resources Committee
Mark Your Calendar! The next Labor & Human Resources
Committee Meeting is the Western New York Meeting scheduled for
Thursday, October 6, 2005 at Six Flags Darien Lake.
We called our meeting to order at 10 AM on August 10th at the
offices of Northrop Grumman Corporation in Bethpage.
Tom Minnick welcomed the committee members, thanked our hosts
at Northrop Grumman and reviewed the contents of the meeting book.
After a short introduction by each attendee, Dr. Hy Dubowsky.
Director-Economic Development Programs, presented to the group "Employment
Tax Incentives; What are they and How to use them."
Hy presented these incentives as making good business sense and
that in using these incentives, employers can:
- Reduce labor costs
- Access new sources of labor
- Provide a source of capital
He outlined in detail the following variety of employment based
credits/incentives available to New York State Employers:
Federal Credits
- Work Opportunity Tax Credit - $2,400
- Welfare-To-Work - $8,500
- Empowerment Zone Credit - $3,000
- Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
New York State Credits
- Empire Zone wage tax credit - $1,500 (10 zones)
- Empire Zone
targeted wage credit - $3,000
- Workers With Disabilities tax
credit - $2,100 year
- Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
New York State Training Incentive
- Low income 200 percent
- Workforce Investment Act training grants
Hy invites anyone interested in more details of his programs to
contact him at the NYS Department of Labor at 1/800-HIRE-992.
Following Hy, Tom Minnick, in his role as Manager,
Center for Human Resources at The Business Council proceeded with
a legislative review.
Prior to covering the legislation, Tom reviewed The Business Council's
economic out look with a review of the job creation/job loss situation
in New York State using data produced by The Public Policy Institute,
the Council's Think Tank.
The best labor news of 2005 was the overturning by the federal
courts of the state's "labor neutrality law," enacted in 2002.
This was the law which prohibited employer use of "state funds" for
expenses associated with opposing a unionization effort in the
workplace. It also required the compilation of detailed financial
records for an employer to defend itself. The Business Council's
news of this is here: http://www.bcnys.org/whatsnew/2005/0517neutrality.htm.
After a short review of employment and union membership data,
showing New York as the highly unionized state in the country,
Tom covered the following pieces of legislation that saw full or
partial action during the 2005 legislative session:
- Waiver of striker's unemployment insurance waiting period,
S.654/A.1302
- Access to personnel files, S.3697/A.4411
- Workers' Compensation
posting penalty, S.4185/A.6676
- "Card Check" at residential
facilities for the disabled, S.3008/A.3292
- Workers' Compensation
reform, S.5064
- Restriction on nurses overtime, S.169/A.1199
- Mandated leave
for blood donation, S.514/A.5497
- Paid family leave, S.1501/A.1301
- Enhanced whistleblower protection,
S.3893/A.7185
- Freedom health plans, S.1405/A.2688
- Employee's mail order pharmacy
bill of rights, S.5456/A.8420-A
The presentation wrapped up with a pitch to attend next year's "Visit
Albany Day" on April 4, 2006. This is the annual state lobby day
for HR Professionals in New York State. There were 56 attendees
this year and our goal for 2006 is 100 attendees.
Ed Friedland, Esq., Executive Deputy Commissioner
of the New York State Division of Human Rights, concluded the day's
program by giving the group a detailed overview of the Division,
its mission, structure and caseload history plus a description
of how a complaint is processed and options that employers have
along the way. He also discussed several interesting cases of interest
to the group. He provided a series of excellent handouts which
included reasonable accommodation requirements and brochures covering
age and disability discrimination. He fielded a number of questions
from the group.
Ed emphasized the Division's policy of outreach to employers and
urged the attendees to contact him or Division staff with questions
or to arrange a speaker for a business or civic group.
The meeting adjourned at 3:00 PM.
Additional information and questions about this August meeting
or future meetings should be directed to Tom Minnick at tom.minnick@bcnys.org or
518/465-7511 x210.
