By JUSTINA RAMLAKHAN

One of the many perks of being a City employee is a competitive benefits package, including a pension plan to mitigate living expenses after retirement. Those employed by the New York City Board of Education also have access to disability insurance, death benefits, deferred vested benefits, and a tax-deferred annuity program through their enrollment in the retirement plan.

Krystyna Naprawa, a dedicated school crossing guard and member of Local 372 NYC Board of Education Employees, tragically lost her life last October while on duty at a busy intersection in Queens.

Shortly after her passing, her family discovered she had no City pension.

Although state law requires employers to notify workers of their optional eligibility at the time of employment, many do not take the extra step to enroll in the retirement plan. As a result, these workers miss out on years’ worth of time-earned benefits and the financial security those benefits would have provided in retirement.

Many employees fail to join the retirement system not deliberately, but because they did not realize an action on their part was required.

“Imagine dedicating your entire working life to serving the city, and when you can’t work anymore you have no nest egg to fall back on,” said Shaun D. Francois I, President of Local 372 and the DC 37 Executive Board. “It’s more common than you think, and it’s not right.”

Despite serving 13 years with the city, Naprawa received nothing in return for her commitment. Her sudden passing with no pension inspired her son Tomasz Naprawa to raise awareness about the issue, advocating for a bill to ensure automatic enrollment in the pension program for eligible BOE employees.

“My mom showed up to work in the rain and snow,” Tomasz Naprawa said. “For 13 years, she made sure the streets were safe for kids to cross. And now it feels like no one was looking out for her.”

Standing firmly behind Naprawa in his fight for auto-enrollment were the members of Local 372 who work as School Aides, Health Aides, School Lunch Employees, School Crossing Guards, Substance Abuse Prevention & Intervention Specialists, Family Paraprofessionals, and Parent Coordinators.

These non-pedagogical staff are some of the lowest-paid City workers who have less capacity to independently save for retirement.

“Local 372 members are some of the only City employees who aren’t automatically enrolled in their benefit plans,” said Donald Nesbit, Executive Vice President of Local 372. “We’re fighting for our members to have the same peace of mind other City workers already have.”

Supporters of the switch argued that by allowing for automatic enrollment, all eligible workers would have the opportunity to benefit from their retirement as intended.

After pressure from Local 372 members and union allies, New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul signed Senate Bill S.6861 into law on Dec. 11, 2023, requiring new and existing New York City Board of Education Retirement System (BERS) eligible employees to be automatically enrolled into the BERS plan. Auto-enrollment of new employees will begin on July 1, 2024.

An initial opt-out period for current covered employees will run from July 1, 2024 until Sept. 30, 2024. After this, implementation will continue on a rolling basis each time new covered employees are hired.

New employees are offered a 90-day window to opt-out and, if they do not, will be enrolled at the end of that window. If new employees choose to opt-out of auto-enrollment, they may choose to enroll at another time as long as they remain in covered employment.

“I’m glad that this bill was finally passed,” Naprawa said. “What happened to my mom shouldn’t happen to anyone ever again.”