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or the appointing authority’s designee, of the reason for his or her absence.

The appointing authority shall issue a short response within five calendar

days after receipt of such explanation. If the employee is not satisfied with
the response, CSEA, upon the employee’s request, may appeal the

appointing authority’s response to the Governor’s Office of Employee
Relations within five calendar days after receipt of the appointing

authority’s response. The Director of the Governor’s Office of Employee
Relations, or the Director’s designee, shall issue a written response within

five calendar days after receiving such appeal. Determinations made
pursuant to this subsection shall not be arbitrable.

Article 37

Civil Service Law Section 72 Hearings
The State and CSEA shall jointly agree to a permanent panel of hearing

officers to review employee appeals brought pursuant to Section 72 of the
New York State Civil Service Law, to be administered by the Department

of Civil Service. Members of this panel shall be jointly selected by the State
and CSEA and shall serve for the term of this Agreement. The composition

of this panel may be changed by mutual agreement of the State and CSEA.

Article 38
Work-Life Services

§38.1 Employee Assistance Program
The State and CSEA shall continue to provide an employee assistance

program to provide information, resources and confidential assessment and

referral services to assist employees to be more productive and to assist
agencies in maintaining a healthy and productive workforce.
In recognition of the mutual advantage to the employees and the

employer inherent in an employee assistance program the State shall

prepare, secure introduction and recommend passage by the Legislature
of such legislation as may be appropriate and necessary to obtain an

appropriation in the amount indicated in each year of the 2016-2021
Agreement: $687,663 in 2016-2017, $701,416 in 2017-2018, $715,444 in

2018-2019, $729,753 in 2019-2020, and $744,348 in 2020-2021 to
continue the Employee Assistance Program effort.

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