General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
NEW YORK – Government employees throughout New York State would have the same rights and remedies as private employees when they suffer pay discrimination, under legislation (A2425) which passed the New York State Assembly on April 16 and was sponsored by Assemblymember Aravella Simotas (D-Astoria).
“When someone’s pay is discriminatory, they should have the right go into our State courts to sue for fair pay. Currently hundreds of thousands of public employees do not have that right. That makes no sense and it’s just plain wrong,” Assemblymember Simotas said.
The Simotas bill would amend the New York State Civil Service Law to expand and clarify the meaning of equal pay for equal or equivalent work, spelling out that public employees must receive fair, non-biased compensation in which sex, race or national original is not considered either directly or indirectly. The legislation explicitly gives government employees, whether they are unionized or managerial, the right to sue in State court when they’ve experienced pay discrimination, something they currently cannot do. Only private sector employees have the right to sue in state court to enforce pay equity.
“In an ideal world government employers would set an example of righteous treatment of employees, but unfortunately we live in a world where pay inequity in the public sector is very real,” Simotas said. She noted as one example the 2015 federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finding that for many years New York City had discriminated against more than a thousand black female administrative managers by paying them substantially less than their white male counterparts in similarly situated jobs and titles. Local 1180 of the Communication Workers of America filed that complaint with the EEOC.
Under the Simotas bill, if a government employer was found in violation of the Civil Service Law’s equal pay provisions, the employee would be entitled to back pay, compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorney fees and other costs. The employer would also be enjoined from continuing the discriminatory practice.
“When workers have access to the courts to fight pay inequities that is a powerful way to get closer to eliminating those inequities,” said Simotas.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
BERLIN (AP) — At least five people were killed Wednesday when a bus headed from Berlin to Switzerland came off a highway in eastern Germany and ended up on its side, authorities said.
ΒΟSTON - The newly-elected Metropolitan Iakovos of Mexico, who was enthroned on Saturday, March 16th at the Cathedral of Aghia Sophia in Mexico City, gave his first interview as Metropolitan to The National Herald, which he described as a "historic newspaper," one he has known since childhood, as have his close relatives.
BALTIMORE - Authorities have released the identities of the two people recovered from the water Wednesday morning at the site of the Baltimore bridge collapse.
ATHENS — Police in Greece clashed late Wednesday with Communist-backed demonstrators who tried to prevent a concert by U.
ATHENS – Greece recorded a huge improvement in the business environment rankings of The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) among 82 countries worldwide.