City telephone center workers told to move upstate or lose jobs

The New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) has mounted a legal challenge to the state labor department’s plan to move operations from its lower Manhattan telephone claims center to its TCC sites in Endicott and Troy. The TCCs handle unemployment insurance claims.

In a lawsuit filed in the state Supreme Court for New York County in August, PEF charged the labor department with race discrimination due to disparate impact, a violation of both state and New York City human rights laws. “DOL’s decision to close the New York City TCC has caused a materially severe adverse impact on a protected class of employees [who] will either lose their jobs or be forced to relocate 160 to 185 miles away as a result,” according to the suit.

Disparate impact “is different from other types of racial discrimination claims because you don’t have to prove intent,” explains Liz Schuster, PEF’s associate counsel. “So we are not saying [DOL] intentionally did this. But we are saying it is harmful and that [DOL] should have done something else.”

More than 80 percent of New York City TCC employees are minorities, says PEF member Evarist Nicholas, the lead plaintiff on the case, noting that minorities comprise 6 percent to 9 percent, respectively, of the workforce in Endicott and Troy.

At a press conference announcing the filing of the lawsuit, PEF president Roger Benson blasted DOL for effectively forcing employees to choose between their jobs and their communities. In addition to discriminating against the employees, Benson said closure of the Manhattan office also discriminates against “the thousands of non-English-speaking New York City residents by weakening services to them.”

“This is our thanks for taking care of 9-11 when we went out to the streets and set up tables so people could get their unemployment,” says Nicholas, who questions whether there are political motives driving the job shifting. “They are moving the jobs to Republican country,” she observes, adding that the closure “has nothing to do with [quality] services.”

The state did not move to dismiss the case in its answer to the union’s charges, which was filed in September; rather it plead, in part, that the decision was budgetary and made out of “business necessity,” Schuster says.

The next step: the discovery process, including depositions, which could take upward of 12 months, Schuster notes.

In the meantime, more than a dozen civil and human rights organizations have added volume to PEF’s voice, forming the Coalition to Keep the TCC in NYC. PEF represents more than 130 employees in the New York City claims center.