365 School Districts and BOCES Urge Legislature to Exempt Them from Paid Time Off for Voting

ALBANY, NY (06/10/2019) (readMedia)-- ASBO New York has gathered the signatures of 365 school district and BOCES leaders urging the Legislature to pass legislation (S.5314 Mayer/A.7837 Benedetto) that would exempt them from new paid time off requirements included in the 2019-20 State Budget.

In the recently adopted state budget, new language (see attached) was inserted that required all employers to provide 3 hours of paid time off to vote, regardless of whether that employee had sufficient time prior to or after their workday. Since a majority, if not all, school and BOCES employee's workday ends by 3 p.m., these employees have sufficient time to vote.

"This language was inserted in the state budget at the last moment without consulting the education community and does a great disservice to students and taxpayers who will be adversely impacted by these new requirements," stated Michael J. Borges, ASBO Executive Director.

"School districts are already facing difficulties in hiring bus drivers and finding substitutes, can you imagine the chaos that will ensue when every school district in the state needs to find replacements on the same day," continued Mr. Borges.

The first time this will impact districts statewide is Primary Day on June 25th, which also happens to be a Regents Exam day. The petition was hand delivered to the chairs of the Education Committee's in the Assembly and Senate and sent to all legislators via email and regular mail.

The law requires employers to post a notice at place of work 10 business days prior to the election (June 11th) alerting employees of the provisions of this law. Employees must give two day notice to their employer if they want to take paid time off to vote.

"This is a law of significant financial, logistical and academic unintended consequences that should have never been allowed in the first place," concluded Mr. Borges.

The peition can be found here: http://www.asbonewyork.org/resource/resmgr/files/advocacy/Petition_Exempt_Schools_from.pdf