Non-tenured public administrator exercising policymaking or advisory duties ineligible for unemployment insurance
Shapiro v Commissioner of Labor, 52 AD3d 1139
The Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board held that the Village Administrator of the Village of Muttontown was ineligible to receive unemployment insurance benefits after determining that the Village Administrator was a major nontenured policymaking or advisory position within the meaning of Labor Law §565(2)(e).
The Village Administrator appealed but the Appellate Division sustained the Board’s ruling, holding that the Administrator position was untenured and that the powers and duties of the position of Village Administrator were set out in Village of Muttontown Local Law No. 1 (2005) that set out provisions establishing advisory and policymaking aspects of the job.
Accordingly, said the court, the Board properly determined that Labor Law §565(2)(e) precluded Shapiro from obtaining unemployment insurance benefits.
Comment: Other “excluded” officers and employees of a governmental entity: an elected official; a member of a legislative body or of the judiciary; a member of the state national guard or air national guard, except a person who renders such services as a regular state employee; a person serving on a temporary basis in case of fire, storm, snow, earthquake, flood or similar emergency; and a person in a policymaking or advisory position, the duties of which ordinarily do not require more than eight hours per week to perform. In addition, §565(2)(g) excludes an individual who is an inmate of a custodial or penal institution.
Labor Law §511 sets out additional exclusions, including students and students' spouses at educational institutions [see §511 subdivisions 15 and 17] and independent contractors.
The full text of the decision is set out on the Internet at:
http://nypublicpersonnellawarchives.blogspot.com/2008/07/non-tenured-public-administrator.html