The largest union in Nassau County, Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), representing 7,000 workers, filed a civil lawsuit in the federal court against the Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA), which currently manages financial issues for the county, challenging the freezing of wages. 

The union lawsuit challenges NIFA's authority to stop programmed salary raises, including annual "step" increases and longevity payments. It is similar to a lawsuit already filed by the county's three police unions.

NIFA, which imposed a wage freeze last month in response to a petition by County Executive Edward Mangano, took oversight of Nassau's finances in January after a reported deficit of $176 million, for this year. Mangano requested the wage freeze when he announced the layoffs of 213 employees, and forced unpaid vacation for all employees, as a means of reducing the deficit.

CSEA, with 7,000 members in Nassau County, argues that NIFA's wage freeze violates the U.S. Constitution clause on contracts, which prohibits states from passing laws that lessen contractual obligations.  The lawsuit also alleges that the wage freeze violates CSEA members' constitutional right to due process.

The lawsuit was presented before the Federal Court of the United States for the Eastern District of New York, by CSEA's N.Y. President Danny Donohue, and Jerry Laricchiuta, president of Local 830 of Nassau.  NIFA, its six council members individually, as well as Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and county comptroller George Maragos, are named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit makes mention of past concessions by CSEA to the county, which, according to the union, saved Nassau $27 million.  The lawsuit also indicates that the union had reached an agreement with Mangano, before NIFA took over, which would have restructured the programming of salaries for future CSEA members and would have saved an estimated $70 million in the next few years.  According to NIFA, the wage freeze will save $10 million this year.

NIFA did not consider the CSEA concessions when it declared a fiscal crisis, states the lawsuit, adding that "the wage freeze as applied to employees represented by CSEA is, therefore, not reasonable or necessary to alleviate the projected budget deficit." 

The lawsuit alleges that NIFA, which has the power to approve county contracts, "has not adopted any other measure that erodes or annuls contracts with the exception of employee contracts.  NIFA also did not alert CSEA or offer "the opportunity to be heard" before the wage freeze was put into affect, which, according to the lawsuit, violates constitutional guarantees to due process.

Although the CSEA documents were presented before a federal court, in addition the lawsuit alleges that NIFA did not give CSEA the chance to seek alternatives to the wage freeze, in violation of state law, and argues that the freeze diminishes member pensions even though the N.Y. State Constitution grants protections.