OMCE fights for Management/Confidential Employees of New York State!

The Organization of New York State Management Confidential Employees (OMCE) is the sole representative of state employees who are designated “management/confidential” and thus ineligible to join a union due to the State’s Taylor Law. This diverse group is found in virtually every State agency and includes employees in hundreds of titles and across many occupations. These include administrative and support staff, professionals, program directors and managers, and executive staff.

For more than forty-five years, OMCE has worked tirelessly on behalf of its members to:

• advance legislation that improves work life,

• advocate for improvements in compensation and benefits,

• provide representation in grievance matters and protection in disciplinary matters

• offer career advice and education.

We are the voice of those “M/C” employees who cannot join a union and bargain collectively.

Our members are often designated as essential employees in institutions, hospital and health care settings, correctional facilities, parole offices, and other front-line environments. They work at great risk to their health and potentially to that of their families. M/C’s also lead efforts to provide unemployment insurance benefits, administer Department of Health programs and laboratories to combat the pandemic and other health issues facing New Yorkers and deliver other vital services and benefits. Our members have given their all and worked untold hours of uncompensated overtime to turn the tide against the pandemic. We are proud of all that they do and honored to represent them.

Since M/C employees frequently express feelings that they are not treated equitably compared to their union represented co-workers, OMCE sponsored two bills this year that would provide M/Cs with salary and benefits comparable to those received by PEF represented employees and provide that OMCE would be certified as a recognized employee organization for purposes of employee representation in all matters except collective negotiation in determining the terms and conditions of employment.

We ask New York State legislators and officials to recognize the contributions of our members and guarantee that they will be treated no less well than their union represented coworkers. New York State’s budget cannot be balanced on the backs of 10,000 working men and women that comprise the State’s M/C workforce! Unequal treatment in terms of salary and benefits must stop. We urge Governor Hochul’s administration to recognize the value of the State’s M/C employees and to make employment staffing decisions based on the constitutional principles of merit and fitness.

OMCE looks to New York State Senators and Assembly Members to support:

• Equitable treatment in terms of future salary increases

• Equitable protections against the loss of earned leave accruals

• Retiree pension benefit parity – restoration of withheld salary increases for retirees

• Protection of retiree health benefits and adoption of deserved pension COLAs

• Enforcement of guaranteed paid sick leave coverage for mandatory and precautionary quarantine consistent with established statutes

• Provide onetime opt out from IPP program

• A safe and healthy workplace for all employees

Visit nysomce.org to learn more or call (518) 456-5241.