Register now !    Login  
Main Menu
Who's Online
97 user(s) are online (86 user(s) are browsing Message Forum)

Members: 0
Guests: 97

more...




Browsing this Thread:   1 Anonymous Users






Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#18
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2012/2/20 18:20
Last Login :
2023/11/26 22:12
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 2719
Offline

Putting an end to the unused sick pay scam | Editorial

Great news: Your local police chief and school superintendent haven't been sick in 20 years. That's something that should make you knock wood and toast their good health, maybe even join in the chorus of attaboys at their retirement ceremonies. Instead, it's costing you obscene gobs of money.

Many municipal employees have banked unused sick pay for decades, which is one of the more infuriating reasons why New Jersey's property taxes are stratospheric, as this practice has dropped a $1.9 billion property tax liability on the state, according to research from N.J. Spotlight.

This gravy train must end, so the state Senate is moving a bill that caps accumulated unused sick pay for all public employees at $15,000, the same limit that was applied to state workers who were hired after 2010. 

Currently, there is no cap on county and local workers, which is why people like Jersey City police chief Phil Zacche walked away with an extra $512,000, the result of banking 450 unused sick and vacation days. That's more than enough to cover the $250,000 fine he received after pleading guilty to fraud and embezzlement in January, but we digress.

http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2 ... k_pay_scam_editorial.html


Posted on: 2018/3/24 14:43
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#17
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2010/11/17 1:11
Last Login :
1/7 4:19
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 1241
Offline
Agree, the cap for sick leave pay should be $0, not $15,000.

Also I saw something recently about the pension fund giving 7% returns? Is that right? If so that's pretty outrageous and should be cut in half.

Posted on: 2018/3/14 18:22
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#16
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2010/9/24 1:55
Last Login :
2019/6/18 15:56
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 244
Offline
Quote:

K-Lo2 wrote:
Sick days are banked for sickness. If you aren't sick, you don't take them. If you retire healthy, lucky you, you were healthy, but why do you get to cash them out?


Agree. If the public sector rules around disability are anything like what is common in the private sector, you'd probably never need to have more than a dozen or so sick days stockpiled. My experience has been if you are out more than five days in a row for a medical reason, you go on short-term disability. You are required to take the first five days as vacation or sick (it can vary). I can't imagine the circumstance where you'd be using hundreds of sick days; that's what disability is for.

Posted on: 2018/3/14 16:59
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#15
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2007/10/1 1:03
Last Login :
2023/10/30 19:51
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 1280
Offline
Quote:

K-Lo2 wrote:
Sick days are banked for sickness. If you aren't sick, you don't take them. If you retire healthy, lucky you, you were healthy, but why do you get to cash them out?


+1

Every job I ever worked that gave me separate sick and vacation time, paid you for your vacation time when you left the job, but gave you nothing for the sick time.

I do not understand New Jersey's logic.

Posted on: 2018/3/14 15:00
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#14
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2017/1/3 18:17
Last Login :
2020/10/12 20:58
From Jersey City
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 434
Offline
Sick days are banked for sickness. If you aren't sick, you don't take them. If you retire healthy, lucky you, you were healthy, but why do you get to cash them out?

Posted on: 2018/3/14 14:55
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#13
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2012/2/20 18:20
Last Login :
2023/11/26 22:12
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 2719
Offline

Putting an End to Sick-Pay Accrual by Longtime Public Workers


Posted on: 2018/3/14 11:16
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#12
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2009/7/17 3:05
Last Login :
2023/6/22 2:50
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 953
Offline
Quote:

JSleeze wrote:
Quote:

135jc wrote:
Quote:

JSleeze wrote:
I thought Christie was going to put an end to this.


Good luck in this blue state with that! And, there you go again expecting more from a Repulican than a Democrat


Nope. He raised the issue. When someone says they intend to do something, I pay attention as to whether or not they do it.

Sad for you that you are stuck in the "yay Republicans!" school of political "thought". I'm more interested in solutions than rooting for a team.


By your logic then once Obamacare is repealed Obama did not make good on his main campaign promise of providing healthcare to everyone

Posted on: 2017/4/3 23:33
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#11
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2013/5/15 14:11
Last Login :
2020/10/5 21:44
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 4652
Offline
Quote:

JSleeze wrote:
I thought Christie was going to put an end to this.


Did you at any point think he could do that by executive order? If that was possible he would've.

Would the Democrats in the Legislature have done this? Nope.

Posted on: 2017/4/3 21:20
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#10
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2009/8/27 22:16
Last Login :
2019/4/26 20:07
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 359
Offline
Quote:

135jc wrote:
Quote:

JSleeze wrote:
I thought Christie was going to put an end to this.


Good luck in this blue state with that! And, there you go again expecting more from a Repulican than a Democrat


Nope. He raised the issue. When someone says they intend to do something, I pay attention as to whether or not they do it.

Sad for you that you are stuck in the "yay Republicans!" school of political "thought". I'm more interested in solutions than rooting for a team.

Posted on: 2017/4/3 18:37
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#9
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2009/7/17 3:05
Last Login :
2023/6/22 2:50
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 953
Offline
Quote:

JSleeze wrote:
I thought Christie was going to put an end to this.


Good luck in this blue state with that! And, there you go again expecting more from a Repulican than a Democrat

Posted on: 2017/4/3 18:10
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#8
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2004/6/17 2:16
Last Login :
3/21 23:34
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 5375
Offline
Some municipalites are dealing with this, but not JC. I actually thought Fulop would address this problem, but he hasn't.
http://archive.northjersey.com/news/n ... orough-employees-1.168688

Posted on: 2017/4/3 17:49
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#7
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2009/8/27 22:16
Last Login :
2019/4/26 20:07
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 359
Offline
I thought Christie was going to put an end to this.

Posted on: 2017/4/3 17:19
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#6
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2008/8/12 18:31
Last Login :
2020/4/26 22:05
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 3932
Offline
Quote:

brewster wrote:
Quote:

WhoElseCouldIBe wrote:
I never understood why employers (private or public) should pay for sick days. The way sick days should work is if you're sick, you don't come to work and you're still paid your salary (or equivalent compensation). Paying people later for unused sick time is nonsensical.


Makes sense till you follow the breadcrumbs. Employers can't allow that for unlimited days, so they set a cap. But then you have the healthy employees seeing people getting paid for not working, and say "that's not fair!! He's making the same as me for less days of work!!" And so you negotiate this nonsense.

The best answer is simply set the number of days people work a year, what they do with their days off is their business, but they better plan well if they don't want to lose paid days. If they vacation all their off days and then get sick, they don't get paid for that day. I suppose this is more or less the same as "use it or lose it", but making no distinction between types of off days.


Lots of companies do this now. It usually goes by the moniker of PTO, or Paid Time Off. You get a number of days off (say, 25) and how you use that time is up to you. Some companies will pay out a limited number (say, 5) or will let you carry over to the following year a similar number. At my company, they don't pay out any PTO, but we can carry over up to 5 days. I much prefer the concept of PTO, as I seldom take sick days, and it is also a lot easier to keep track of things.

Posted on: 2017/4/3 17:14
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#5
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2004/11/6 21:13
Last Login :
2023/7/17 17:42
From Hamilton Park
Group:
Banned
Posts: 5775
Offline
Quote:

WhoElseCouldIBe wrote:
I never understood why employers (private or public) should pay for sick days. The way sick days should work is if you're sick, you don't come to work and you're still paid your salary (or equivalent compensation). Paying people later for unused sick time is nonsensical.


Makes sense till you follow the breadcrumbs. Employers can't allow that for unlimited days, so they set a cap. But then you have the healthy employees seeing people getting paid for not working, and say "that's not fair!! He's making the same as me for less days of work!!" And so you negotiate this nonsense.

The best answer is simply set the number of days people work a year, what they do with their days off is their business, but they better plan well if they don't want to lose paid days. If they vacation all their off days and then get sick, they don't get paid for that day. I suppose this is more or less the same as "use it or lose it", but making no distinction between types of off days.

Posted on: 2017/4/3 16:59
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#4
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2011/11/30 12:46
Last Login :
2017/8/3 1:06
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 1907
Offline
I never understood why employers (private or public) should pay for sick days. The way sick days should work is if you're sick, you don't come to work and you're still paid your salary (or equivalent compensation). Paying people later for unused sick time is nonsensical.

Posted on: 2017/4/3 15:54
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#3
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2004/6/17 2:16
Last Login :
3/21 23:34
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 5375
Offline
Fulop criticized Healy for bonding for this when employees leave now he is doing the same thing. Apparently, the city can afford to give away valuable land but not have the funds to pay for this yearly which is around $7 to $9 million each year.

Posted on: 2017/4/3 15:45
 Top 


Re: Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#2
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2012/2/20 18:20
Last Login :
2023/11/26 22:12
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 2719
Offline

N.J. failed to stop sick time payouts. Now we're really paying for it | Editorial


Posted on: 2017/4/3 15:18
 Top 


Tab for public workers' unused sick days tops $2 billion
#1
Home away from home
Home away from home


Hide User information
Joined:
2012/2/20 18:20
Last Login :
2023/11/26 22:12
Group:
Registered Users
Posts: 2719
Offline

Accumulated Sick-Day Payouts: ‘Local’ Problem Hits $2 Billion and Counting

NJ SPOTLIGHT - | March 30, 2017

Pay for unused absences was capped at $15,000 in 2010, but public employees hired before that at school districts, towns, and counties across the state can still rack up six-figure payouts

When he retires, Jersey City’s police chief could set a new record for payout. According to the city’s 2016 User Friendly Budget, the chief had accrued 444 days of sick leave and vacation totaling $503,533 — $1,134 per day. The police department’s website indicates that Philip D. Zacche has been a police officer since December 1979 and was named chief in October 2014.

The city’s budget shows three other employees were due more than $100,000 for unused days as of last year: the business administrator, fire chief, and public works director.

In total, Jersey City employees had banked more than 313,000 days of leave worth nearly $118 million, by far the largest of any municipality in the state. The total value of the days accrued by the city’s police, exclusive of the chief, was $68 million, $16 million more than the bill for the entire city of Newark, which had the second largest accumulation.

Largest Liabilities for Unused Leave Time

Governmental Entity2016 Liability
Jersey City$117,785,923
Newark$52,531,538
Bergen County$50,491,770
Jersey City School District$36,546,294
Newark School District$34,641,711
Atlantic City$29,685,804
Middlesex County$26,434,772
Hudson County$25,430,125
Elizabeth$23,159,164
East Orange

$19,003,156

http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17 ... s-2-billion-and-counting/


Posted on: 2017/3/31 2:21
 Top 








[Advanced Search]





Login
Username:

Password:

Remember me



Lost Password?

Register now!



LicenseInformation | AboutUs | PrivacyPolicy | Faq | Contact


JERSEY CITY LIST - News & Reviews - Jersey City, NJ - Copyright 2004 - 2017