| Contact: | Sunny Mindel/Edward Skyler 212-788-2958 |
-Remarks By Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani At Public Hearing On Local Laws-
The next bill before me today is Introductory Number 351-A,
sponsored by Speaker Vallone and Council Member Dear. This bill would provide
a pre-tax qualified transportation fringe benefit to all city employees.
The purpose of this benefit is to allow employees to use pretax earnings to
purchase transportation benefits, thus saving them money while encouraging
them to use mass transportation. This is a laudable goal. However, the Council's
bill seeks to provide such a benefit through inappropriate means by disregarding
the state-mandated collective bargaining process.
Last November, my Administration provided roughly 100,000 employees, including all non-uniformed civilian union members, MetroCard benefits after they negotiated for the opportunity to use this benefit under the citywide agreement. The MetroCard benefit will allow these employees to purchase MetroCards using pretax earnings. As such, this bill would not only give these unions a benefit they have already obtained through collective bargaining, but would also give this benefit to other labor unions that have yet to request the benefit, allowing them simply to bypass the collective bargaining process.
Furthermore, State law does not give the local legislative body the right to unilaterally grant fringe benefits, such as qualified transportation benefits, to employees subject to collective bargaining. Under State law, the chief executive officer is responsible for collective bargaining on behalf of the City. The Council's bill usurps the negotiating power of the Mayor by granting a benefit without respect for the bargaining process.
This is an unlawful attempt by the Council to usurp the Mayor's authority granted under State law, and represents a dangerous and slippery slope for the City to embark upon, as it would jeopardize the future collective bargaining interests of City of New York.
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