Colleagues,
Late yesterday, the Governor extended his order that non-essential employees work from home through May 28th. The new order does modify his earlier order to permit public employers to reopen those activities that are consistent with the reopening phase in their region.
What this means is that nearly all of our bargaining unit members will continue to work at the location where they presently are working at least through May 28th. The only exceptions to this may be a small number of our members who are at campuses in regions of the State that are now in Phase 1 of reopening and who engaged in what are defined as Phase 1 economic activities.
For our bargaining unit, that may include work involving agriculture (those predominantly at the tech campuses taking care of livestock and farms, most of whom were deemed essential from the start) and those who may be supervising a construction project on campus and perhaps maintenance supervisors. We are working with SUNY to clarify this small group of individuals as well as what may occur when regions move to Phase 2. In that stage, there will be a greater number of professionals who may be asked to return to work on campus. However, if the Governor does not shift from his stated plan on reopening, nothing will happen on that for at least 2 weeks.
We will be updating the Q & A on this topic today for our Coronavirus area on the website. Please direct this information to our members and advise them to check on the information contained in that area of the website often as much changes day to day.
In Solidarity,
Fred Kowal
President, UUP