PSEG puts its plan to offer $1,000 vaccine incentive on hold

PSEG Long Island has put on hold a plan to pay employees up to $1,000 in a special one-time incentive to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, after the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers.

The incentive was part of a COVID-19 prevention program that PSEG, which manages the Long Island Power Authority's electric grid, unveiled earlier this month to comply with the federal mandate. It was to apply to both nonunion and union members, some of whom objected.

"All was negotiated with the unions," spokeswoman Ashley Chauvin said in an email. But after the Supreme Court’s decision on Jan. 13, "we paused the implementation of our practice, as we [said] we would if the court reached this decision."

Chauvin wouldn’t say how many of PSEG’s approximately 2,400 workers remain unvaccinated. A conference call held with workers earlier this month included some who strongly objected to the vaccine, said a person on the call.

Patrick Guidice, business manager for Local 1049 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said PSEG had been "strongly encouraging" workers to get vaccinated, but the union’s position remains that "people have a choice."

"Nobody can be forced to do something they don’t want to do," said Guidice, who noted he is vaccinated and "I believe in the science." But the union's position is, "People will make their own decisions," he said, adding "some members feel very strongly" about their right not to get vaccinated. He said PSEG "remained committed to working with the union to bring everybody in compliance."

The union took the position that "to give someone no choice, as in ‘You won’t be able to work and provide for your family’ " if they declined to get vaccinated is "just plain wrong."

PSEG employees who work in New York City, including those servicing the Rockaways, still must comply with the city’s separate mandate. Guidice said the policy has not excluded any unionized employees from going to work.

Other elements of the PSEG program include educating employees about the vaccines, paid time off for recuperation after workers get the shot, face-covering guidelines and testing requirements.

Separately this week, PSEG said it expects to transition to a new computer system to manage outages by month’s end. The new version of the system, an iteration of which failed during Tropical Storm Isaias, has repeatedly been scheduled for rollout on various dates in 2021, but complications kept pushing the date farther into the future.

The system, which helps the utility assign work, communicate with customers about restoration times and tally the progress of restorations, is being run in an older version until the new one is fully tested and integrated.

Chauvin said PSEG and its contractors have completed testing of the new system to make sure it can pass what she called PSEG’s "stringent validation criteria."

Last week, she said, the company conducted two separate successful stress tests that "simulated call volumes experienced during Tropical Storm Isaias and call volumes that would simulate an outage impacting 90% of PSEG Long Island’s customers."

Next up is migrating the new system into full operation, which will take place over the next two weeks.

LIPA, which has been critical of PSEG’s computer system progress and expertise in a series of task force reports and public meetings over the past year, said that while PSEG's system and progress "are improved from last year," the authority is "still waiting for the test results, which we will independently validate and verify."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.