CSEA and SUNY reach agreement on mandatory COVID-19 testing for CSEA-represented employees

** CSEA supervisors: Please post in departments where employees do not have access to campus email. **


SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras and Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) President Mary E. Sullivan have reached an agreement to conduct free, mandatory testing for CSEA-represented employees at SUNY state-operated colleges, universities and hospitals.

Effective immediately and continuing through Dec. 31, 2020, all CSEA employees who work in person and on campus at SUNY New Paltz are required to be tested for coronavirus.

Employee testing must be provided free of cost and must allow employees to be tested during employment hours.

The process of implementing mandatory CSEA employee testing at SUNY New Paltz is currently in the planning stages. Campus leaders from the Office of Human Resources, Diversity & Inclusion and the Testing & Tracing subcommittee will work with local CSEA representatives to develop their respective employee testing protocols.

The group is targeting an Oct. 8 start date for CSEA employee testing, pending conversations with CSEA leadership.

The SUNY-CSEA agreement calls for CSEA employee testing to be done at the same frequency as student testing; New Paltz students are currently required to be tested twice during the fall 2020 semester. Employees will have options for fulfilling the mandatory testing at off-campus facilities if they prefer.

More details and updates will be shared with the campus community as soon as they are available.

This SUNY-CSEA agreement follows a similar memorandum of understanding between SUNY and United University Professions (UUP) that was signed last week. SUNY New Paltz administrators and UUP leadership are currently finalizing testing protocols for UUP employees.