Gary D. Finch

FOR RELEASE: IMMEDIATELY                                                   CONTACT: MATT MOYSE (518) 455-5981

ASSEMBLYMAN FINCH DEMANDS NEW YORK STATE PAY ITS CORRECTION OFFICERS NOW
 

     Assemblyman Gary Finch (R,C-Springport) is asking New York State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi to order his staff to work as diligently as possible in calculating the well-earned pay raises that were negotiated
in good faith with correction officers earlier this year.

     “While I understand it is a complex process for the comptroller’s office to do this work for each correction officers’ unique employment history, I firmly believe it must be completed immediately,” Finch said. “It is
completely unacceptable for these dedicated men and women to wait until as late as next April for all of the money they are owed.”

     Initially, Hevesi had said checks for the retroactive pay raises would not be in the mail until the “first quarter” of 2007.

     Finch sent a letter to Hevesi this week in which he bluntly told the Comptroller, “…while you may find sending partial salary payments adequate, these hard-working correction employees do not.”

     Correction officers approved a new contract this past spring, having worked under their old contract since April 2003. Late last week, the Comptroller agreed to “advance” each of the state’s approximately 23,000 COs a partial payment. For many, though, that is less than half the money which is owed them.

     “Correction officers leave their homes each day not knowing if they will return. They work in very dangerous environments,” said Finch, who represents hundreds of correction officers and their families as the
representative of the 123rd Assembly District. “To not pay these professionals the money they worked so hard to earn is, simply, unconscionable.”

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                                                                                                                           7/19/06