BILL NUMBER: S2703

SPONSOR: HARCKHAM
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public authorities law, in relation to providing
benefits to Metro-North employees involved in or who witness a serious
injury or fatality of another person in the course of an assigned duty

 
PURPOSE:

Provides benefits to Metro-North employees involved in or who witness a
serious injury or fatality of another person in the course of an
assigned duty

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends the public authorities law by adding section 1266-1 by
requiring that Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company provides mandatory
benefits to any employee who witnesses or is otherwise involved in a
serious injury or fatality of another person through the course of his
or her assigned duty. Such benefits shall include, but are not limited
              

to, seven consecutive working days paid leave, mental health services,
including counseling, and if recommended by their health care provider.
Additionally, a mandatory mental health examination conducted by the
employee's health care provider before being approved to return to work,
with up to four additional weeks of paid leave, if recommended by his or
her health care provider. Such employees shall be compensated by Metro-
North at an amount not less than the employee would have earned on the
assignment they would have worked until such employee has used their
full allotment of mandated time off pursuant to this section.

Section 2 state the effective date

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Unfortunately, through either accidents or suicides, Metro-North engi-
neers and conductors are frequently involved in fatal collisions
throughout the course of their careers. It is important that these work-
ers have the appropriate time to process these intensely traumatic inci-
dents- both for their own personal mental health and as a safety measure
to ensure that they are emotionally equipped to return to operating
trains.

For years, Metro-North had a policy of granting three paid days off for
engineers and conductors who were involved in the fatality.  However,
this policy was abruptly changed over a weekend in early 2020. No notice
of this change was provided to Metro-North workers or to their union
representatives until an engineer was inevitably involved in a fatality.
Under the new policy, the engineer in question was told that since his
scheduled days off ("rest days") fell within the immediate three day
period, Metro-North was not required to pay him for those days, nor were
they obligated to provide additional time off after his rest days.

The Association of Commuter Rail Employees ("ACRE") aggressively chal-
lenged this change, culminating in a meeting with Metro-North's Presi-
dent and Senior Vice President of Operations wherein the policy was
ultimately reverted back. During the meeting, however, the Senior VP
questioned why Metro-North should provide bonus days to a worker that
hits a trespasser. Given Metro-North's inconsiderate and inappropriate
attitude in addressing these fatalities, combined with their recent
history of unilaterally changing the policy- a statutory mandate is
necessary.

This bill ensures that Metro-North engineers and conductors will be
provided a fundamental safety net when they are involved in, or witness
firsthand, a traumatic fatality on the job. In doing so, this bill will
further reduce the safety risk posed by having an employee who was just
involved with a critical incident return to work and perform safety-sen-
sitive functions.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2021-2022: S6490 - Died in Transportation

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the State.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.