Advance, Cornell ILR School's publication for alumni and friends.
Issue link: https://advance.epubxp.com/i/693246
Confict resolution? Check. Negotiation? Check. Public policy? Check. New York State Sen. David Carlucci '02 dips into his ILR-honed toolkit just about every day. As one of fve Independent Democratic Conference members in the state senate, Carlucci aligns with Republicans, as well as with Democrats, depending on the issue. "The idea was to change the status quo," he said, referring to the coalition, which bucks the political tradition of voting down party lines. Busting loose from "hyper-partisanship" has contributed to change such as raising the state's minimum wage and legalizing same-sex marriage, said Carlucci, whose district includes parts of Rockland and Westchester counties. His professional political career began at age 24 when he beat a 28-year incumbent to become town clerk of Clarkstown, N.Y. In his third term as a state senator, Carlucci is chair of the senate's social services committee and sponsored the "ABLE" Act. Now law, the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act allows New Yorkers with disabilities to create a tax-exempt savings account for maintaining health, independence and life quality. In April, the senate passed Carlucci's bill to make Lauren's Law permanent. Named after a girl who received a heart transplant, the law is credited with a jump in the number of New Yorkers willing to donate organs. 7 o stranger to bridging the gap between academic research and public policy, Senior Extension Associate Linda Donahue MPS '14 has spent decades collaborating on research about labor rights and worker wages, providing valuable data to New York state governmental bodies through publications, reports and testimonies. Helping to uphold Cornell ILR's land-grant mission through research, she has championed efforts for good wages, safe conditions, meaningful education, adequate health care and improved opportunities for working people. "In the 1990s, I had the beneft of working with the R. Brinkley Smithers Institute at the ILR School, examining the relationship between drinking behaviors and work," Donahue said. "It became quite evident to me that work affects the quality of people's lives in almost every way." She co-authored the 2007 study "The Cost of Worker Misclassifcation in New York State" to spotlight its implications for not only workers and employers, but taxpayers. Donahue testifed before the New York State Senate and Assembly Labor Committees about ILR research fndings that up to one in four construction workers in New York state might be misclassifed. "Misclassifcation occurs when an employer, at hiring, improperly classifes a worker as an independent contractor rather than an employee," Donahue said. "The employer illegally avoids his obligation to contribute to systems such as workers' compensation and unemployment insurance." Further, misclassifed employees often are denied access to minimum wages, overtime pay, and family and medical leave benefts — protections that they are likely entitled to by law. "This costs governments — at all levels — substantial, uncollected revenues that are in the hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars. Taxpayers get stuck covering the shortfalls," she said. ILR's research was instrumental in the formation of the New York State Task Force on Misclassifcation, Donahue said, and prompted an amendment to state law. The New York State Construction Industry Fair Play Act became law in 2010. N Sound of Change ADVANCING WORKER RIGHTS BY INFORMING POLICY