9/11 sick leave tiff with Blaz

New York State legislators want to give unlimited sick leave to city employees with illnesses linked to Ground Zero, taking the power away from Mayor de Blasio, who is doling out the much-needed help on a piecemeal basis through the city's unions.

State Sen. Andrew Gounardes' 9/11 sick leave bill is in clear opposition to a plan created by the de Blasio administration, which is in the final stages of hammering out deals with each city union instead of providing blanket coverage to all employees.

“The city said they will take care of this themselves, but they have yet to solve it,” said Gounardes (D-Brooklyn), who hopes all three bills will pass by the end of the legislative session in Albany. “In the meantime, more people are getting sick. The city is letting them down here.”

The unlimited sick leave bill is one of three pieces of legislation known as the “9/11 Heroes Bills.”

Other bills in the package call for additional physicians to be added to the New York City Employees' Retirement

System so city employees' 9/11-related diagnoses can be approved quicker and for the FDNY to acknowledge that if a retiree comes down with specific cancers five years after leaving the department the illness was contracted during the performance of duties.

City officials say Gounardes' (photo) unlimited sick leave bill is unnecessary: nearly all of the unions representing city employees have finalized sick leave agreements and about 90 employees with diagnosed 9/ 11-related conditions are being helped.

“Every city employee with a 9/11 illness is being taken care of,” one city official said.

Those being helped include FDNY and NYPD civilian workers who don't normally get unlimited sick leave, EMTs and paramedics, City Hall officials said.