Life goes on, sort of, during the time of the coronavirus.

Many of us are working from home at present and the rest are either essential or non-essential.

The non-essentials are, by Mayoral Order, at home, but the essentials are still working at their normal jobs in this most abnormal time.

Our union has been busy trying to deal with issues as they arise. For example, last week's newsline warned that non-essential workers could be transferred to essential jobs and that has been happening.

One group of our members normally working as trainers were finally determined to be non- essential. However, they were then told to be ready to take up some other essential work. So, they sat in a room, waiting and waiting. Alice Moise and our grievance department contacted the agency and, by mid-week, the trainers were sent home. They will return only if really needed.

We are also trying to get our normal work done, but our largest outstanding issue, our overdue contract, is not going forward at this time because the Office of Labor Relations is focusing on the health crisis.

Even so, we were able to win an overdue victory at the Hospitals Corporation.

Gabrielle Martinez has been seeking payment for standby time for two groups of our members. She, Nora Sullivan, and Adam Orgel had prepared a case to go forward,but we won a nice settlement instead. The matter is not resolved going forward, but for a time period gone by, checks will now be going out.

Fifty-nine (59) Clinical Business Analysts who grieved the matter will now receive a check for $4,687 (before deductions) each.

One hundred and one (101) Senior Consultant (Management Information Services), who had also grieved, will now receive a check for $5,200 (before deductions) each.

The total amount being sent out now is a bit over $800,000. We are very pleased that our vital and overworked New York City H+H members will be receiving these checks. Thanks again to our legal and grievance staff for their good work.

Finally, the section "Coronavirus Info & Resources" has all the guidance and rules updated as they are issued. It is found by clicking on the blue button on the main page of this website.

If you would like to listen to this newsline as an audio file, please click on this link:

AUDIO - March 30, 2020

On Friday of last week, we received an updated Guidance on Leave Applicable During the Outbreak of Coronavirus.

The Guidance, posted below as part of the Newsline for March 20th, is four pages long and seeks to answer a number of questions.

You should read the document for details, but in essence, all City workers have now been divided into two categories - essential and nonessential.

The rules laid out in the Guidance are generally clear, but are not always being followed perfectly by the agencies.

The major problem areas are two. First, some workers who can work from home have not been told to do so by their bosses. Second, some bosses have trouble figuring out that their work is nonessential.

For nonessential workers who could work from home, but have not yet received approval to do so, there is a choice. You can just go to work and wait to have work from home be authorized or you can stay home and call in daily and offer to work from home.

For nonessential workers who have been improperly deemed essential or whose status has not been determined, there is the same choice. You can go to work and protest or you can stay at home and call in.

In both cases, you may be asked to use your leave credits to cover your absence. Thus, your decision will probably be made due to health considerations.

Are you personally at or above the age of 60, or do you have immune problems, heart disease, lung problems or asthma? Does anyone in your household fit the extreme at-risk categories?

If the answer to any of those questions is yes, you will have to decide the proper course of action for your family.

All of those deemed to be doing nonessential work who are sent home will not be charged against their leave credits. Please note, they are still subject to being recalled to do other, essential, work. This may happen to a number of our members and it may, indeed, be necessary.

More than a few of our members are doing essential work and, for those members, the rules are laid out in the March 20th Guidance as well.

Things keep changing. Stay in touch. Check back frequently in case of updates.

If you would like to listen to this newsline as an audio file, please click on this link:

AUDIO - March 23, 2020

The City's Department of Citywide Administrative Services has issued a new guidance document for mayoral agencies on leave policies during the coronavirus emergency. You can download it at the following link. It supersedes the policy DCAS issued at the end of last week and which we previously posted in the March 16 Newsline.

Updated DCAS Guidance Document On Leave Policy During the Coronavirus Outbreak/a>

New York City Health + Hospitals has now issued the agency's temporary telework policy during the COVID-19 emergency. You can download it at the following link:

COVID-19 Temporary Telework Policy - NYC Health + Hospitals

This is the first time we have ever posted two newslines for the same day.

Last Friday, we recorded the newsline for this week. In it, we mentioned that negotiations were due Monday afternoon, but we were concerned about attendance by the agency representatives. No longer.

Over the weekend, the bargaining session was cancelled, due to the coronavirus.

We will be seeking to continue negotiations over the telephone.

Meanwhile, large parts of the city are shutting down and things are changing daily.

So, that's all the news for now, but check this newsline later this week as things are developing quickly and we will update this page as warranted.

If you would like to listen to this newsline as an audio file, please click on this link:

AUDIO - March 16, 2020 Amended

The coronavirus has dominated our phone lines over the past week. Many of our members are involved with IT and can and should soon be working from home. We have been in frequent contact with the labor relations offices on this issue and, as of Friday, the new citywide guidelines have been issued.

We generally agree with the guidelines which we post here:

Personnel Services Bulletin 600-3 "Temporary Citywide Telework Policy for City Employees During the COVID-19 Outbreak"

Temporary Citywide Telework Policy For City Employees

DCAS Leave Guidelines For City Employees Potentially Exposed to Coronvirus

The guidelines and PSB apply to mayoral agencies. Many of those mayoral agencies have issued guidance documents to their employees based on these overall policies. If you did not receive anything from your agency, please ask them for the relevant document.

The Transit Authority has issued a separate policy for Telework. Interested and eligible TA members should complete the form at this link and submit it to your agency:

TA Telework Form

TA Coronavirus Guidance Information

The NYC Housing Authority has issued its own leave guidance for those potentially affected by corona virus which you can download here:

NYCHA Coronavirus Leave Policy

The faster that thousands of city employees are allowed to self-isolate and work from home, the better.

Many of our workers do work that cannot be easily accomplished by work from home and for many others there is a grey area where maybe they could or maybe they couldn't, but no one is sure nor have arrangements been made as of yet.

So, we will all do the best we can in this bad situation. The union is advocating work from home wherever feasible and the mayor is saying the same thing.

Our scheduled bargaining session is still on for Monday, but given the circumstances, the City may not have been focusing on our issues. We are curious as to how many agency representatives actually will show for the meeting. Our guess would be the attendance may be light, but OSA will be there.

The HHC also has asked us to mention to our members that this might be an ideal time to set up direct deposit of your paycheck into your bank account. Normally, the union does not take a position for or against direct deposit, but given the situation, direct deposit would seem to make sense.

We do not particularly expect a breakthrough at Monday's bargaining session, but if we are pleasantly surprised, we will change the newsline.

Also, over the days to come, our newsline is our fastest way to share news so we may update it more often as matters develop.

If you would like to listen to this newsline as an audio file, please click on this link:

AUDIO - March 16, 2020

The leadership of the Organization of Staff Analysts Retirees Club (OSARC) has decided to cancel the regularly scheduled OSARC meeting set for this Wednesday, March 11, 2020 from 12:30 to 2:30 at the union office.

Chair Helen Hanigan-Kosuda has extended OSARC's thanks to the planned guest speaker Dolandre Williams and told him we look forward to inviting him to speak and present his exercise program at a later date.

There was general agreement among the OSARC officers that, with the increasing spread of the COVID19 virus in the tri-state area that it would be prudent to cancel the meeting rather than potentially expose members to any risk either at the meeting or in transit.

There will be further information about the planned April trip, May meeting and June luncheon in the coming weeks and in the next OSARC Newsletter, depending on developments.

Our meeting with the City on issues affecting the Supervisors of Traffic Device Maintainers went well this week. Details are too complex for a brief newsline report, but the end result was that the Department of Transportation is siding with us about the need for changes in their working hours.

That much was clear.

We were also under the impression that the Office of Labor Relations heard us clearly and did not disagree. A problem may arise from the Office of Management and Budget, but everybody else seems to agree that a change is needed, in fact, is overdue. More details in the mailing.

Our next full negotiating session is March 16th.

The other, bigger, news is the coronavirus. The City appears to be taking it very seriously and the agencies are informing our members as they get their acts together. Our health and emergency response members will be a frontline, so HHC and Health are strongly urging our members to get free flu shots as soon as possible. The logic is that the regular flu season has not yet peaked and none of us wants two different flus to worry about. Failure to get those shots may result in agency orders to wear a face mask while on the job. Management will be issuing procedures and specifying who must do what.

Our union plans on a brief delay of our next general membership meeting, but not due to the virus. We would like a chance to know the results of the next two scheduled negotiating sessions before the meeting. Therefore, we are planning on an early April date for the meeting and notice will be given both here and in the mail. At the same time, we are not getting our hopes up at all. We were disappointed last June, so we will reserve judgement.

We did have a couple of nice reports last week. The first one was the restoration of a 35 hour work week for our Administrative Nurses at MetroPlus. The newsline said this was coming but last week, on Friday March 6th, the members were told about it by a management-issued memorandum which you can download at this link. Good. Drs. Schwartz and Katz kept their word, and we are pleased at the correction of an extreme injustice.

Also important, Amedeo D'Angelo, Deputy Comptroller for Administration, sent our Alice Moise an email. He expects an early April start date for our compressed work schedule at the Comptroller's Office. The email concluded, "The Comptroller made it clear that we will go forward and, with due diligence, rest assured, we will."

Most encouraging.

If you would like to listen to this newsline as an audio file, please click on this link:

AUDIO - March 9, 2020

One of our collective bargaining demands appears to be resolved. The MetroPlus Nurses unit had been treated very poorly by their agency. Unilaterally, management had decided to change those workers' hours from 35 to 37.5 per week, with no increase in pay.

As a result, our Nurses found their lunch hours cut in half with no payment for the extra 30 minutes worked each and every day.

Since, at that time, they did not have union status or protection, there was only one thing they could do in response. Many of them, over the months that followed, resigned and found fairer employers.

This past September, the Nurses chose OSA to be their union and we immediately sought to legally roll back their regular work day to 7 hours. The legal process can be good, but it is generally really slow.

However, about a month ago, the OSA leadership met with Dr. Talia Schwartz, the new CEO of Metro Plus. She made a good impression with her detailed presentation, but she also told us that the agency was being seriously hurt by poor retention of their employees.

We zoomed in on the daily unpaid half hour inflicted on the Nurses before Dr. Schwartz had arrived. Dr. Schwartz did agree that if it was as we had said, it was unfair and not right.

We soon had a chance to meet with Dr. Mitchell Katz, head of the city hospitals and we shared Dr. Schwartz's comment. He also agreed that it should be looked into.

Last week, we were told by H+H that the daily hours of work will revert to seven hours as of this month.

If so, excellent. This will reduce employee turnover, improve morale and, incidentally, meet our contract demand number 23.

We will be meeting this Tuesday with the City regarding a similar, unique issue affecting our Supervisors of Traffic Device Maintenance at the Department of Transportation.

Beyond such details, we now have two more full meetings on our contract expected for this month. The negotiations seem to be going well for now.

If you would like to listen to this newsline as an audio file, please click on this link:

AUDIO - March 2, 2020