A New York State employee bites the ear of a mentally-disabled group-home resident she’s supposed to be taking care of. She keeps her job. A group home worker is arrested for stealing a resident’s money. He keeps his job.
State employees kick a patient on the floor, look at Internet porn and post “Here’s to beating retards” on Facebook. They keep their jobs.
Two-and-a-half years after promising to crack down on widespread abuse and neglect of developmentally-disabled people in state-run and state-regulated facilities, Gov. Cuomo has hit a brick wall when it comes to booting offenders from the payroll.
That brick wall is Danny Donohue, president of the Civil Service Employees Association, the union representing group-home workers. Donohue is holding vulnerable citizens hostage in a shameful collective bargaining battle.
In 2011, The New York Times revealed shocking levels of neglect and abuse in group homes overseen by the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, some directly operated by the state and others run by non-profits. Workers who taunted, beat or sexually assaulted residents usually kept their jobs, even after repeat offenses.
Cuomo replaced the agency’s management, toughened anti-abuse laws and established a new watchdog agency . He also extracted a key promise from Donohue: that the CSEA would agree to penalties mandating automatic termination for employees found guilty of serious abuse.
But Donohue reneged on that pledge. He has stonewalled on granting protection to the disabled while demanding an unrelated and outrageous health insurance benefit for his members. The result is that in 2012 the state managed to fire only 23% of the group home workers brought up for termination — the same pathetically low rate found two years earlier, the Times reported.
More than three out of four received lesser penalties, such as suspensions, in a rigged arbitration system. By contractual rule, the key disciplinary decisions are turned over to arbitrators jointly chosen by labor and management. Knowing that their livelihoods depend on the good will of unions, arbitrators too often go easy on the guilty.
The governor must have the power to protect disabled individuals who are under state care. Cuomo must use every lever of power — from the Legislature and courts to the bargaining table and public shame — to end Donohue’s tolerance of unconscionable abuse.
