ABSTRACT
The first civil service law in New York State was enacted in 1882, shortly after enactment of an almost identical federal statute, the Pendleton Act. During approximately seventy years thereafter, lobbying by employee associations and good-government groups resulted in other laws to address patronage in the civil service system; standardization of wages and hours and grading of jobs, tenure, due process and benefits. As far as collective bargaining was concerned, however, the public sector lagged behind the private sector, primarily because of common law doctrines applied by the courts to prohibit public sector bargaining. Among these, the common prohibition against strikes by public sector employees was the most compelling. 1
In 194 7, in response to a series of illegal strikes in the public sector, the legislature passed the Condon-Wadlin Act. The penalties for strikes were severe: any public employee who violated the statute would forfeit his or her job and, if subsequently rehired, would be on probation for five years and ineligible for a raise for three years.
