S 5459: Relates to employment of persons and veterans with disabilities by the state; provides up to five thousand positions may be filled by persons with a physical or mental disability and up to two thousand positions may be filled by disabled veterans and veterans with disabilities.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5459 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE February 21, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sens. COMRIE, CLEARE, WEBB -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Civil Service and Pensions AN ACT to amend the civil service law, in relation to employment of persons and veterans with disabilities by the state The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 55-b of the civil service law, as 2 separately amended by section 1 of part T of chapter 55 and chapter 521 3 of the laws of 2023, is amended to read as follows: 4 1. The commission may determine up to [seventeen hundred] five thou- 5 sand positions with duties such as can be performed by persons with a 6 physical or mental disability who are found otherwise qualified to 7 perform satisfactorily the duties of any such position. Positions desig- 8 nated to be filled pursuant to this section may be filled on a full-time 9 or part-time basis. Upon such determination the said positions shall be 10 classified in the noncompetitive class, and may be filled only by 11 persons who shall have been certified by the employee health service of 12 the department as being a person with either a physical or mental disa- 13 bility. The number of persons appointed pursuant to this section shall 14 not exceed [seventeen hundred] five thousand. 15 § 2. Subdivision 1 of section 55-c of the civil service law, as sepa- 16 rately amended by chapters 521 and 618 of the laws of 2023, is amended 17 to read as follows: 18 1. The commission may determine up to [five hundred] two thousand 19 positions with duties such as can be performed by disabled veterans and 20 veterans with disabilities who are found otherwise qualified to perform 21 satisfactorily the duties of any such position. Positions designated to 22 be filled pursuant to this section may be filled on a full-time or part- 23 time basis. Upon such determination, the said positions shall be classi- 24 fied in the noncompetitive class, and may be filled only by veterans of EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD09678-01-5 
 S. 5459 2 1 the armed forces of the United States (a) who establish by appropriate 2 documentary evidence that they are disabled veterans, as defined in 3 paragraph (b) of subdivision one of section eighty-five of this chapter, 4 or (b) by those veterans, as defined in paragraph (a) of subdivision one 5 of section eighty-five of this chapter, who shall have been certified by 6 the employee health service of the department as being disabled but 7 capable of performing the duties of said positions. Priority in certif- 8 ication and referral of both such disabled veterans and certified disa- 9 bled but capable veterans shall be given to those veterans who received 10 a wound in combat, as documented by the awarding of the purple heart, as 11 authorized by the United States department of defense, and that wound is 12 the cause of, or a substantially contributing factor to, the degree of 13 impairment, who otherwise meet the requirements of this section. The 14 number of veterans appointed pursuant to this section shall not exceed 15 [five hundred] two thousand. 16 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.