NYHWA Update, January 2015 The New York Healthy Workplace Advocates (nyhwa.org) are leading the effort in New York State to pass the Healthy Workplace Bill (HWB). The bill numbers for the HWB in New York State during the 2013-2014 legislative session were S3863 (in the NYS Senate) and A4965 (in the NYS Assembly). New bill numbers for the 2015-2016 legislative session are expected to be assigned by mid-February 2015. NYHWA will hold Lobby Days to advocate for the HWB after the new bill numbers are assigned. By the end of the 2013-2014 legislative session 86 Assemblymembers and 20 Senators were sponsors of the bill. Enough votes were in place to pass the bill in both the NYS Assembly and NYS Senate but the bill never reached the floor for a vote in either house. The HWB addresses bullying in the workplace, defined as repeated: verbal abuse, psychological abuse, work interference and /or work sabotage that prevents work from getting done or some combination of the three. This message is being sent to provide an update on the activities of NYHWA and the status of the Healthy Workplace Bill in New York State. JANUARY 2015 UPDATE: 1. Lobby Days – March 9 & 10, 2015 2. Send NYHWA Your Personal Account of Workplace Bullying 3. Volunteer Needed to Assist with Promotion of NYHWA on Facebook 4. Appeal for Unions and Professional Associations to Lobby 5. Proclamations Received in Recognition of “Freedom From Workplace Bullies Week , October 19-25, 2014” – NYC Boroughs Come Through 6. New York State Recreation and Park Society Conference and Business Expo talks on workplace bullying 7. 2014 Western New York Health Expo 8. CareerBuilder Survey on Workplace Bullying 9. Check us out at nyhwa.org and on our Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube sites 1. Lobby Days – March 9, 10 & 11 2015 NYHWA will hold its first Lobby Days for the new legislative session on Monday & Tuesday, March 9 & 10, 2015. The personal accounts of individuals that have been the targets of workplace bullying are the most effective means of convincing elected officials to support the HWB. We will have three teams meeting with various legislators over the three days and limit the number of people who accompany us so everyone has a chance to speak in addition to team leaders updating the legislators on the recent updates and events that have transpired since we last met with them. Coming to Albany is always a rewarding experience for those who choose to participate. Meetings are held in the offices of Assemblymembers and Senators and are attended by about four to six people. If you are willing to join us in Albany on March 9, 10 & 11 to share your personal story in confidence with elected officials and/or their staff, your participation in the lobbying effort will be both effective and appreciated. Please consider joining us for this lobbying effort. To inquire further about the lobbying effort or to volunteer your participation in the March 2015 Albany event, please send an email to: [email protected]. We will only have slots for a maximum of 6-8 people for each day of the event. 2. Send NYHWA Your Personal Account of Workplace Bullying If you can’t come to Albany in March to meet with elected officials, you can still participate in the lobbying effort by sending us a personal account of your workplace bullying experience that will be included in our lobbying packets. NYHWA is accepting personal accounts of workplace bullying experiences for the March 2015 Lobby Days. These accounts will be distributed to all 212 New York State legislators and the Governor’s office. NYHWA asks that personal accounts be no more than 4-6 pages in length. Written personal accounts of workplace bullying experiences are an effective way that individuals can make a difference to educate our legislators about the various ways they being are bullied in the New York workplace. In your account, you can either state your full name, first name and initial of your last name, or a pseudonym – whatever you are comfortable with. NYHWA has found that including the name or your town adds to the effectiveness of your account, as does including the name of your NYS Senator and NYS Assemblymember. You can verify the name of your NYS Senator under the “Find My Senator: section here: nysenate.gov/ And you can verify the name of your NYS Assemblymember using the NYS Assemblymember search here: assembly.state.ny.us/mem/search/ Please consider sending us your personal account of what you have experienced to speak up for the many people who cannot do so due to health issues, fear and diminishment of the strength they need to survive another work day. It is your voice and courage that contributed collectively will pass the Healthy Workplace Bill in New York State! 3. Volunteer Needed to Assist with Promotion of NYHWA on Facebook NYHWA is looking for a volunteer to help us utilize Facebook to promote the legislative effort to various groups and organizations in New York State. This assistance would include copying and pasting updates NYHWA sends to you to various Facebook pages. NYHWA has a special Facebook account that was created just for this purpose so you would not have to use your own Facebook account to help with this endeavor. If you are interested, please send us an email at [email protected] 4. Appeal for Unions and Professional Associations to Lobby If you are a member of a union or professional association, please request that your group make the Healthy Workplace Bill one of their legislative priorities and to actively lobby for passage of the bill in 2015. The bill numbers for the HWB in New York State during the 2013-2014 legislative session were S3863 (in the NYS Senate) and A4965 (in the NYS Assembly). New bill numbers for the 2015-2016 legislative session are expected be assigned by mid-February 2015. During the 2013-2014 legislative session, Professional Staff Congress (PSC) and New York State Unified Teachers (NYSUT) made the Healthy Workplace Bill one of their legislative priorities and actively lobbied for the bill. Elected officials have told us that they want to hear from more unions and other groups, and especially from private sector groups in the 2015-2016 legislative session. Please do what you can to help to meet this request. Thank you. 5. Proclamations Received in Recognition of “Freedom From Workplace Bullies Week , October 19-25, 2014” – NYC Boroughs Come Through It was an exciting year for the proclamation campaign this past October as for the first time in several years of trying, NYHWA was able to obtain proclamations from all 5 Boroughs of NYC (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island! This achieved an important milestone as recognition of this issue has made it almost to the top echelons of New York State. Only the City of New York and the Governor’s office remain in terms of recognition of this issue. Requests for proclamations were sent to both the City of New York and the Governor’s office in 2013 and 2014. We have come close in obtaining a proclamation from New York City in both years receiving letters to send the information to various offices within the City and the Council although to date, a proclamation has not been issued. To date, the largest city to issue a proclamation has been Los Angeles in 2014. The following communities issues a proclamation in 2014 recognizing “Freedom From Bullies Week” in 2014. Towns/Villages Alden, NY; Amherst, NY; Castle-on-Hudson, NY; Clarkstown, NY; Cortlandville, NY; Dobbs Ferry, NY; East Syracuse, NY; Elbridge, NY; Greenburgh, NY; Islip, NY; Massena, NY; Maybrook, NY; Nelsonville, NY; Poughkeepsie, NY; Schoharie, NY; Unionville, NY Cities Jamestown, NY; Niagara Falls, NY; Oneida, NY; Oswego, NY; Rome, NY; Saratoga Springs, NY; Counties Clinton; Columbia; Erie; Ontario; Oswego; Rockland; Warren Boroughs Bronx; Brooklyn; Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island The aforementioned proclamations can be reviewed at: Pinterest/NYHWA 6. New York State Recreation and Park Society Conference and Business Expo talks on workplace bullying This past November 12, 2014 NYHWA spoke about workplace bullying and the effort to pass the Healthy Workplace Bill to the New York State Recreation and Park Society (NYSRPS) and its affiliate groups at the 20th Downstate Recreation Conference in White Plains, New York. 7. 2014 Western New York Health Expo NYHWA participated in the WNY Health Expo at the Eastern Hills Mall on Saturday, October 4, 2014 near Buffalo, NY. During the event we spoke to a number of people who commented about workplace bullying that they or that of family members experienced. Several of those who stopped to talk mentioned that they were nearing retirement. While research has shown that older workers are likely to be targets due to their salary, need for health care, and closeness to reaching a viable retirement date, some people stated how they opted to retire early just to get away from their abusive work environment. While early retirement was a solution that worked for them, early retirement to escape workplace bullying for many comes at a significant cost, with lower pension payouts that impact they quality of their lives throughout the rest of their lives. As you learn about Health Care Fairs across New York State, please let us know at [email protected]. And if you are willing to sponsor a table to educate people about workplace bullying, we can send you various materials that can be provide to educate the public on this issue. 8. CareerBuilder Survey on Workplace Bullying CareerBuilder recently released a new study on workplace bullying showing that minorities are bullied in higher numbers than the general population. While this may not be news for many of us in the work place, it is additional information that is useful to illustrate to state legislators that protected status harassment has many loopholes that the Healthy Workplace Bill will close. Employers and coworkers have long figured out that they can act abusively and harass workers, but need to use terminology and tactics that cannot be correlated to a protected status. The CareerBuilder study complements the February 2014 Workplace Bullying Institute’s research on the same issue that was shared with the New York State Legislature this year. A press release about the CareerBuilder study can be reviewed at: careerbuilder/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?sd=9%2F18%2F2014&id=pr842&ed=12%2F31%2F2014 9. Check us out at nyhwa.org and on our Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube sites To learn more about the legislative effort and to keep current with our activities, please visit us at nyhwa.org and facebook/groups/nyhwa/ and pinterest/nyhwa and youtube/channel/UCPCOL6Mo0R6Y-vUUXWmcezA Thank you for your interest and assistance in the effort to pass legislation to address workplace bullying in New York State!
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 23:30:57 +0000
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