Section 208 - Rights accompanying certification or recognition1. A public employer shall extend to an employee organization certified or recognized pursuant to this article the following rights: (a) to represent the employees in negotiations notwithstanding the existence of an agreement with an employee organization that is no longer certified or recognized, and in the settlement of grievances; and(b) to membership dues deduction, upon presentation of dues deduction authorization cards signed by individual employees. A public employer shall commence making such deductions as soon as practicable, but in no case later than thirty days after receiving proof of a signed dues deduction authorization card; and such dues shall be transmitted to the certified or recognized employee organization within thirty days of the deduction. A public employer shall accept a signed authorization to deduct from the salary of a public employee an amount for the payment of his or her dues in any format permitted by article three of the state technology law. The right to such membership dues deduction shall remain in full force and effect until: (i) an individual employee revokes membership in the employee organization in writing in accordance with the terms of the signed authorization; or(ii) the individual employee is no longer employed by the public employer, provided that if such employee is, within a period of one year, employed by the same public employer in a position represented by the same employee organization, the right to such dues deduction shall be automatically reinstated.(c) Should the individual employee who has signed a dues deduction authorization card either be removed from a public employer's payroll or otherwise placed on any type of involuntary or voluntary leave of absence, whether paid or unpaid, such public employee's membership in an employee organization shall be continued upon that public employee's return to the payroll or restoration to active duty from such a leave of absence.(d) Unless otherwise specified by a collective bargaining agreement, upon the request of the employee organization, not more than quarterly, the employer shall provide the employee organization the name, home address, job title, employing agency or department or other operating unit and work location of all employees of a bargaining unit. A failure to comply with this paragraph shall be deemed an improper employer practice pursuant to paragraph (a) of subdivision one of section two hundred nine-a of this article.2. An employee organization certified or recognized pursuant to this article shall be entitled to unchallenged representation status until seven months prior to the expiration of a written agreement between the public employer and said employee organization determining terms and conditions of employment. For the purposes of this subdivision, (a) any such agreement for a term covering other than the fiscal year of the public employer shall be deemed to expire with the fiscal year ending immediately prior to the termination date of such agreement, (b) any such agreement having a term in excess of three years shall be treated as an agreement for a term of three years, provided, however, any such agreement between the state and an employee organization representing employees in the executive or judicial branches which commences in the calendar year two thousand twenty-one having a term in excess of three years shall be treated as an agreement for a term certain specified in such agreement but in no event for a term greater than four years, and (c) extensions of any such agreement shall not extend the period of unchallenged representation status.3.(a) Notwithstanding provisions of and restrictions of sections two hundred two and two hundred nine-a of this article, and section two hundred one of the state finance law, every employee organization that has been recognized or certified as the exclusive representative of employees of the state within a negotiating unit of classified civil service employees, employees within a negotiating unit of civilian state employees of the division of military and naval affairs or employees in a collective negotiating unit established pursuant to this article for the professional services in the state university, for the members of the state police or for the members of the capitol buildings police force of the office of general services shall be entitled to have deducted from the wage or salary of the employees in such negotiating unit who are not members of said employee organization the amount equivalent to the dues levied by such employee organization, and the state comptroller shall make such deductions and transmit the sum so deducted to such employee organization. Provided, however, that the foregoing provisions of this subdivision shall only be applicable in the case of an employee organization which has established and maintained a procedure providing for the refund to any employee demanding the return any part of an agency shop fee deduction which represents the employee's pro rata share of expenditures by the organization in aid of activities or causes of a political or ideological nature only incidentally related to terms and conditions of employment. Nothing herein shall be deemed to require an employee to become a member of such employee organization.(b) Notwithstanding provisions of and restrictions of sections two hundred two and two hundred nine-a of this article and section ninety-three-b of the general municipal law, every employee organization that has been recognized or certified as the exclusive representative of employees within a negotiating unit of other than state employees shall be entitled to have deducted from the wage or salary of employees of such negotiating unit who are not members of said employee organization the amount equivalent to the dues levied by such employee organization and the fiscal or disbursing officer of the local government or authority involved shall make such deductions and transmit the sum so deducted to such employee organization. Provided, however, that the foregoing provisions of this subdivision shall only be applicable in the case of an employee organization which has established and maintained a procedure providing for the refund to any employee demanding the return of any part of an agency shop fee deduction which represents the employee's pro rata share of expenditures by the organization in aid of activities or causes of a political or ideological nature only incidentally related to terms and conditions of employment. Nothing herein shall be deemed to require an employee to become a member of such employee organization.4.(a) Within thirty days of a public employee first being employed or reemployed by a public employer, or within thirty days of being promoted or transferred to a new bargaining unit, the public employer shall notify the employee organization, if any, that represents that bargaining unit of the employee's name, address, job title, employing agency, department or other operating unit, and work location; and(b) Within thirty days of providing the notice in paragraph a of this subdivision, a public employer shall allow a duly appointed representative of the employee organization that represents that bargaining unit to meet with such employee for a reasonable amount of time during his or her work time without charge to leave credits, unless otherwise specified within an agreement bargained collectively under article fourteen of the civil service law, provided however that arrangements for such meeting must be scheduled in consultation with a designated representative of the public employer; and(c) Upon the request of the certified and recognized employee organization, and if the public employer conducts new employee orientations, the public employer shall provide the employee organization mandatory access to such new employee orientations. The employee organization shall receive not less than ten days' notice in advance of an orientation, except that a shorter notice may be provided in a specific instance where there is an urgent need critical to the employer's operations that was not reasonably foreseeable to provide such notice. The structure, time, and manner of exclusive representative access shall be determined through mutual agreement between the employer and the employee organization.5.(a) If any clause, sentence, paragraph, or subdivision of this section shall be adjudged by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unconstitutional or otherwise invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, or subdivision of this section directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered.(b) If any clause, sentence, paragraph, or part of a signed authorization shall be adjudged by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unconstitutional or otherwise invalid, such determination shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder of such signed authorization but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, or part of the signed authorization directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered.N.Y. Civ. Serv. Law § 208
Amended by New York Laws 2023, ch. 677,Sec. 1, eff. 11/21/2023.Amended by New York Laws 2022 , ch. 361, Sec. A-2, eff. 6/30/2022, op. 4/1/2021.Amended by New York Laws 2020 , ch. 55, Sec. W-2, eff. 4/3/2020.Amended by New York Laws 2019 , ch. 55, Sec. E-2, eff. 4/12/2019.Amended by New York Laws 2018 , ch. 59, Sec. RRR-1, eff. 4/12/2018.Amended by New York Laws 2017 , ch. 165, Sec. 2, eff. 8/8/2017.