Tag Archives: “public employee”

In Our Opinion..., Labor In The News

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES: THE NEW SCAPEGOATS

Alan Shapiro
Alan Shapiro January 6, 2011

In an article published yesterday by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, entitled “The Shameful Attack on Public Employees,” Professor Reich rebuts the most common myths about public workers. Included among these myths are:

  • Public employees earn more than private sector employees
  • Public sector pensions are crippling the country
  • Bargaining rights for public employees have caused state deficits to explode

None of these statements withstand factual scrutiny yet they are repeated by many politicians and business leaders as if they were gospel. The question is “Why?”

Professor Reich convincingly argues that this attempt at pitting public v. private sector workers masks what is really happening in our country:

  • “[C]orporate executive pay … continues to rise as corporate profits soar”
  • Wall Street bonuses are higher than before taxpayers bailed out the financial industry
  • Hedge-fund and private-equity managers continue to pay 15% federal tax, while the rest of us pay close to or more than double that
  • “[T]he top 1 percent is now raking in a bigger share of national income than at any time since 1928, and paying at a lower tax rate.”

As Reich summarizes the situation:

Don’t get me wrong. When times are tough, public employees should have to make the same sacrifices as everyone else. And they are right now. Pay has been frozen for federal workers, and for many state workers across the country as well.

But isn’t it curious that when it comes to sacrifice, Republicans don’t include the richest people in America? To the contrary, they insist the rich should sacrifice even less, enjoying even larger tax cuts that expand public-sector deficits. That means fewer public services, and even more pressure on the wages and benefits of public employees.

It’s only average workers – both in the public and the private sectors – who are being called upon to sacrifice.

The Big Lie is a strategy that has been employed by some political figures over the last century to win over public opinion in an attempt at seizing power. The Nazis in Germany and Joe McCarthy here in the 1950’s are prime examples. As someone once said, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” We need to make the current crop of political leaders accountable for what they say.

Alan H. Shapiro

Sandulli Grace, P.C.

In Our Opinion...

SJC Grants Rare Victory To Public Employees – Deceased Employee Entitled To 72% Retirement For Suffering Heart Attack Upon Being Told Of Layoff

Sandulli Grace Staff March 2, 2009

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, as we’ve indicated frequently on this blog, has issued a number of decisions that are unfavorable, and occasionally hostile, to public employees in general and public safety employees in particular.  However, in Retirement Bd. of Salem v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Bd, SJC-10215 (February 24, 2009), the SJC granted a huge victory to public employees. 

In this case, a public employee suffered a disabling heart attack upon being told by her supervisor that her job was being eliminated in a few months.  After work and within one hour of hearing this news, the employee suffered a heart attack.  She was briefly hospitalized.  She never returned to work.  Instead, she immediately filed for an accidental disability retirement, which generally provides 72 percent of the employee’s recent salary, pursuant to M.G.L. c.32, §7.

 A public employee who suffers a mental or emotional disability as a result of a “bona fide personnel action” (i.e., a legitimate transfer, demotion, etc) is ineligible for accidental disability retirement.  Here, the Retirement Board denied benefits because it claimed that the heart attack arose from news of a bona fide personnel action.  The SJC disagreed, ruling that the physical, as opposed to emotional/mental, injuries that result from a bona fide personnel action remain eligible for accidental disability retirement.  In other words, Chapter 32, §7 denies accidental disability retirement benefits to employees who, for instance, suffer a permanent psychological disability as a result of layoff news, but does not deny benefits if the exact same news results in a permanent physical disability.

In the decision, the SJC also affirmed that disabling injuries, to qualify for accidental disability retirement, must occur while working and not merely “at work.”  In other words, the employee likely would not have been eligible for benefits had the heart attack resulted from learning at work about a family tragedy.  The SJC concluded here that the employee’s injury arose during the performance of work duties given that she was ordered to participate in a meeting with her supervisor.