PEF President Ken Brynien Statement on Severance Program

ALBANY, NY (07/23/2009)(readMedia)-- "The primary goal of the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) was to stop the governor's proposed layoffs and maintain the job security of our members while continuing to provide quality services to the citizens of New York," said PEF President Ken Brynien.

"The memorandum of understanding entered into by PEF and the state July 23 is not perfect, but achieves that goal. The state can now move forward with the voluntary severance program with the ultimate goal of eliminating the need for state worker layoffs.

"The amount of the severance payment will be $20,000 and will be available to targeted employees.

"As part of the agreement, PEF will not oppose Tier V legislation and the state agrees not to lay off PEF represented employees before December 31, 2010.

"Additional details of the MOU are available on the PEF Web site at http://www.pef.org/. We remain committed to providing quality services to the taxpayers of this state while maintaining the job security of our members," Brynien said.

PEF is the state's second-largest state-employee union, representing 59,000 professional, scientific and technical employees.

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