COVID Vaccine & Mask Mandates

COVID Vaccine for OMRDD, OMH & OASAS Sites

Last week, DASNY management issued a vaccine mandate for those employees officially stationed at any OMRDD, OMH, and/or OASAS field sites. The mandate also affects any DASNY employee who visits those sites. After much internal CSEA discussion, Local 698 does not have a legal path to block such a mandate.

As many of you read, the mandate is issued by the federal government to any Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The CMS mandate targets health care facilities, like those listed above, that receive federal funding regardless of the amount.

DASNY management will enforce the penalty to those who fail to comply with the mandate. The penalty is charged leave accruals for each day that an employee is unable to report to the worksite due to lack of vaccination and/or not reporting vaccination status. Management can institute this without issuing a formal disciplinary procedure.

Should you be an employee that is charging leave accruals, you MUST NOT perform ANY DASNY work from home or otherwise. Management has REFUSED to provide for a telecommuting program outside of the negotiation process which would have alleviated some of the issues inevitably caused by this absurd mandate.

Mask Mandate

Absurd doesn’t even begin to describe this issue. As management begins to pull employees back to the main offices, they have reminded employees of the mask mandate that has been imposed by Governor Hochul. Employees must always wear a mask when in the office including when seated in their cubicles.

Employees refusing to comply will be sent home and expected to charge leave accruals. Management can take this action without issuing a formal disciplinary procedure.

Local 698 President Liz Moran has discussed this issue with many people at some of the highest levels in CSEA. There is no current legal ground to push back on this issue.

CSEA Members are reminded that if you are sent home DO NOT perform ANY DASNY work from home or otherwise. You should not be giving up any of your time to DASNY if you are not being compensated.

Local 698 leadership position on this? Absolute POPPYCOCK! If the environment is so dangerous that we need to wear masks at all times, then we should be allowed to continue to work from home. Why is management pulling us back into offices? It doesn’t add up.

WEAR YOUR UNION MASK!!

Please wear your red TelecommuteNOW mask when in DASNY offices or at DASNY work sites. President Moran is handling the issuance of masks and understands that there is a handful of you that have not yet received them. Those masks are getting mailed within one week of the date of this message.

Questions, comments or concerns? Please contact President Liz Moran at presidentlocal698@outlook.com