CSEA Wins Class Action Settlement for Retirees

March 16, 2010

New York’s Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/AFSCME Local 1000 has won a settlement on behalf of 1,600 retired Westchester County employees, ending a six-year legal dispute over their health insurance benefits.

The agreement, approved in March by state Supreme Court Judge Joan Lefkowitz, freezes prescription drug costs for the life of the retirees and their dependents. The county also agreed to pay each affected retiree or surviving dependant $700, and to reimburse CSEA $65,000 for attorney fees and litigation expenses.

The agreement, overall, could be worth more than $5 million, depending on the life expectancy of beneficiaries and the cost of medication.

CSEA Statewide President Danny Donohue, also an AFSCME International vice president, called the agreement a “huge victory” for the retirees. “They live on fixed incomes and never expected they would be forced to pay more for their health care,” he said.

CSEA filed suit in 2004 on behalf of the workers who retired between January 1993 and May 2004. The union claimed that the county “unilaterally and illegally diminished” those retirees’ health-insurance benefits through increased co-pays and deductibles.

Judge Lefkowitz supported CSEA’s position in a 2008 decision that concluded the retirees’ contractual benefits “may not be diminished without their consent.”

The county appealed, but the prospect of two more years in the appellate court system led to the settlement, which must be implemented within 90 days.

The county also agreed that other CSEA unit retirees, who previously had no clear contractual or legal protection, were entitled to at least the insurance level of active employees.