Enacts the "public employee whistleblower protection act"; repeals certain provisions of the civil service law related to early disclosure for certain alleged violations of certain public employees.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A7951
SPONSOR: Abbate TITLE OF BILL: An act to repeal paragraph (b) of subdivision 2 of
section 75-b of the civil service law relating to enacting the "public
employee whistleblower protection act"
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To remove the requirement that public employee whistleblowers first
notify their supervisors of the improper activity, in order to protect
employees where it is the supervisors themselves who are engaged in the
improper activity which the whistleblower seeks to report.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Paragraph (b) of subdivision 2 of section 75-b of the civil service law
is repealed.
JUSTIFICATION:
A public employee is required to make a good faith effort to first
disclose to his or her appointing authority or designee information
regarding an alleged violation of the law or improper government activ-
ity under the current "whistleblower law." However, this requirement
fails to address cases where the employee's superior or another senior
administrator may be involved in unethical activity, making reporting
ill advised. According to the Commission on Public Integrity, over the
years there have been cases where state employees requested anonymity
when reporting unethical conduct to avoid retaliation, have refused to
cooperate with investigations out of fear of reprisal or, at least in
one reported case, been summarily fired, This act would modify the civil
service law to remove the early disclosure requirement and thereby
protect whistleblowers and enable them to expose improper actions by
their superiors.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2014: S4084 Referred to Civil Service and Pensions
A.8014 (2010).
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7951
2015-2016 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
June 2, 2015
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ABBATE -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Governmental Employees
AN ACT to repeal paragraph (b) of subdivision 2 of section 75-b of the
civil service law relating to enacting the "public employee whistle-
blower protection act"
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
2 the "public employee whistleblower protection act".
3 § 2. Paragraph (b) of subdivision 2 of section 75-b of the civil
4 service law is REPEALED.
5 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01476-01-5
