For the past two months, the majority of municipal operations have engaged in reduced roles, as the State of New York has been on PAUSE criteria. Soon perhaps we can look to establish an expansion in operations welcoming back employees and increasing established workloads.

The Comp Alliance Risk Management department is here to assist our municipal members in establishing new guidelines for re-opening services while easing social isolation in getting employees back to work. NYS has established a phased plan to re-open New York.

This webinar hosted by Robert Blaisdell, Comp Alliance Director of Risk Management reviews the plan, municipal requirements from the plan and our loss prevention recommendations as well, all for the protection of your employees and the public health. 

Registered members can view a recorded version of the May 14, 2020 webinar by Clicking Here and signing in to the Comp Alliance Academy/Safety Webinars.

Comp Alliance – WEBINAR – Friday, June 5^th at 10:00 AM: To access this recorded webinar please visit the Comp Alliance Academy Webinar section which can be accessed by clicking here and logging in as a Member.

The Webinar Includes:

• Re-Opening Concerns and Updates
• Review Summer Workplace Exposures
• Fire Department and Police Department Exposures - Risk Management Plans
• Followed by a Question and Answer session

With the majority of the state approved for Phase 1 Re-Opening, it’s a good time to see how the safety of our operations are progressing. During this Zoom video conference session, we will update our municipal members on the hazards associated with this increase in operations, review summer exposures for full-time and seasonal staff, look ahead at the Comp Alliance Risk Management Department’s plans for Fire and Police Department Exposures, and we will follow-up the entire program with a Question & Answer session with our Risk Management staff. Program members are invited to join us for this 45 minute discussion presented by Robert Blaisdell, Director of Loss Control for the Comp Alliance.

The Comp Alliance is pleased to announce it will be issuing a Workforce Reduction Credit Refund for all our members for the 6-week period beginning March 16, 2020 through the end of April.

We recognize and appreciate the extraordinary efforts our members have undertaken to continue to provide essential service to the public. These changes include adjusting work schedules, changing work duties and encouraging work from home where possible (telecommuting). The result is a temporary reduction in workload and capital projects. With fewer employees working, scaled down operations and capital projects put on hold, the Comp Alliance is giving back to its members. In the next week, we will be issuing checks to our members equal to a 10 percent reduction in funding for the 6-week period beginning March 16, 2020.

One of the founding principles of the program was providing an up front, predictable cost for workers’ comp insurance. Since our inception, we have not conducted payroll audits after a coverage term is complete, and we do not have any intention of doing so now. The temporary changes in workforce and operations, however, prompted us to perform an internal review of our job-classifications and develop an appropriate response.

Using information provided by our sponsoring associations, New York State Conference of Mayors and Association of Towns of the State of New York, we have identified several adjustments our members have made to their daily operations. While these adjustments vary considerably by individual member, we focused on common threads, considered the re-classification of the most impacted municipal operations, and developed a credit that we will apply uniformly to our members. We will continue to monitor changes in municipal operations and workforces as we transition to reopening in the coming weeks.  

We wish everyone health and wellness.