NYSUT Handbook for Laid-Off and Retrenched Employees
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Dick Iannuzzi
Introduction: Restarting Your Career
As president of New York State United Teachers, a statewide union of more than 600,000 professionals in education and health care, I know how important each and every worker is to our shared mission of helping students learn. The union fights mightily to secure the resources needed to keep teachers teaching and to keep education and health employees on the job from pre-K through post-grad. Despite NYSUT's success as an advocate, education is not immune to job loss triggered by this deep global recession.
Few events are as devastating as losing a job. As a NYSUT member, if you are laid off, your membership in the statewide union will be continued for free. That membership ensures your eligibility to participate in NYSUT Member Benefits and NYSUT Social Services; it entitles you to free legal consultation if you have lost your job, and keeps you at the forefront of union advocacy.
NYSUT is dedicated to providing support, information and resources to help you get through these tough times. Through the online NYSUT Career Center and companion guide for laid-off and retrenched employees, you will find information about protecting your benefits, your rights in returning to work, and news and resources to help in a job search.
You may be temporarily laid off from work, but you continue as a valued member of your statewide union. NYSUT is here to serve you during this challenging time and into the future.
Richard C. Iannuzzi
President, New York State United Teachers
NYSUT Handbook for Laid-Off and Retrenched Employees
Table of Contents
Introduction: Restarting Your Career
"As a NYSUT member in education, if you are laid off, your membership in the statewide union will be continued for free," says President Dick Iannuzzi. Membership ensures your eligibility to participate in NYSUT benefit programs and services.
1. The First Step: Check With Your Union
Your principal or supervisor may ask you to sign a statement regarding your layoff. One rule of thumb: never sign anything. Check with the union first.
2. Maintaining Your NYSUT Membership
NYSUT's "zero state dues" policy for laid-off members maintains your continuity of membership and services if you lose your job.
3. Maintaining Your Health Benefits
As soon as you get a notice of layoff, contact your personnel office or benefit fund to determine the date when your insurance coverage will cease, and to learn about options such as enrolling in COBRA to continue your coverage.
4. Maintaining Your Retirement Benefits
Retirement benefits are linked to your employment status, so it's important to have clear, specific guidance on how unemployment, re-employment or a change in careers could affect your benefits at retirement.
5. Your Right to be Recalled for Vacancies
Your local union can tell you what your contract may provide in terms of seniority rights - which can affect both the order in which layoffs are made and the order in which workers may be recalled to future job openings.
6. Unemployment Insurance
Are you eligible to receive unemployment benefits? How do you apply? We answer these and more frequently asked questions on unemployment insurance.
7. NYSUT Services: From Health to Finances
NYSUT Social Services staff has a broad scope of knowledge and extensive referral resources. Professionals provide free, supportive phone consultation, followed up by working with agencies and providers in your community. All contacts and resulting services from NYSUT Social Services are completely confidential.
8. Coping with Emotional Stress
People who gravitate to careers in education work in an environment that emphasizes structure and stability - so losing a job can make them "feel the ground is moving" beneath them, says Dr. Peter Kanaris, clinical psychologist and coordinator of public education for the New York State Psychologist Association.
9. Your Job Search Action Plan
The AFL-CIO offers a job search action plan to help members who are out of work. NYSUT has added further information to that list, some specifically for educators.
NYSUT Handbook for Laid-Off and Retrenched Employees
- Introduction: Restarting Your Career
- 1. The First Step: Check With Your Union
- 2. Maintaining Your NYSUT Membership
- 3. Maintaining Your Health Benefits
- 4. Maintaining Your Retirement Benefits
- 5. Your Right to be Recalled for Vacancies
- 6. Unemployment Insurance
- 7. NYSUT Services: From Health to Finances
- 8. Coping with Emotional Stress
- 9. Your Job Search Action Plan
- DOWNLOAD: NYSUT Handbook for Laid-Off and Retrenched Employees (PDF)