Newsday – November 24, 2014
by Dan Janison
Steve Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York, says his union’s push to improve disability benefits for newer members is unrelated to talks toward an overdue contract settlement with the city.
Rather, Cassidy said, it’s prompted by a recent resumption of FDNY hiring stalled by years of litigation over diversity.
Hundreds are now joining the FDNY’s ranks with the prospect of collecting, if seriously injured, only $27 a day from the city above Social Security disability payments, he said — a situation also potentially affecting police rookies. Benefits for new hires were first pared in 2009 when then-Gov. David A. Paterson vetoed a previously routine bill giving them the better benefit senior members get.
“You can’t have separate disability compensation for firefighters running into the same burning building,” Cassidy said.
But the City Council has failed so far to act on a home-rule message that could allow the bill to advance in Albany, he noted.
No comments yet.