The Percy Program

It is a fight to level the playing field to be able to compete for jobs and careers on the basis of skills and make available apprentice training to all. In 1973 Al Percy launched a class action lawsuit to give workers like him a chance to better their lot in life. It would also ensure the availability of skilled workers to build the infrastructure of the future.

Views
2 years ago

Attachment 6 EDNY Hodge v Cuomo 21-cv-01421 Complaint

  • Text
  • Operator
  • Defendants
  • Percy
  • Employment
  • Intervention
  • Pageid
  • Nursing
  • Employers
  • Apprenticeship
  • Benefits
  • Attachment
  • Edny
  • Hodge
  • Cuomo
  • Complaint

Case

Case 1:21-cv-01421-NGG Case MDL No. 3011 Document 1 25-6 Filed 03/17/21 Filed 06/24/21 Page 20 Page of 154 20 of PageID 154 #: 276 and provide upgraded health care building construction and renovations, with isolation wards and socially distanced floorplans. The problem is that they panicked. 30. Boost in staff training, added isolation units and development of a drill toolkit to shore up infectious-disease defenses were supposed to be instituted at hospitals and nursing homes. We are now experiencing the consequence of not been prepared, facing a period of reckoning, spanning the myriad ramifications of the pandemic that has now fundamentally changed all aspects of life in New York. 31. Training as detailed in the Alternative Employment Practice would have included crosstraining and mentoring workers to improve emergency staffing levels and boosting hospital and nursing home capacity during crisis. Long-standing efforts by many hospitals and nursing homes to address racial and ethnic disparities in Americans' health did not receive attention now apparent from COVID-19's disproportionate impact on people of color, including the employee Class Plaintiff 32. Pre-Covid-19 pandemic understaffing issues at many nursing homes statewide helped fuel the spread of coronavirus among the most vulnerable frail and elderly New Yorkers, the state Attorney General’s recent report referenced herein, found, and advocates and lawmakers have since pushed legislation seeking to increase staffing and make other reforms. 33. Building a skilled workforce pipeline is critical to success, to identify and invest in workforce development that target youth and teens for soft-skills development career exploration and exposure, and paid on-the-job work experiences including internships, first jobs, and pre-apprenticeships, and then for the partnership under the National Apprenticeship Act, to prepare for the jobs of today and tomorrow is what is needed. 34. The Percy Class has been chronically damaged long-term in lost wages, lost opportunity compensation, these damages also affecting members of the Percy Classes’ children and families, significantly disadvantaged in education and skills, struggling to get a job, not able to compete for jobs and employment based on skills. 35. And most important to the well-being of the Class, this action seeks to prohibit Government Agencies and State Officers from interfering with the Alternative Employment Practice identified herein at ALTERNATIVE EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE paragraphs 22 of this Complaint: The Percy Program, referenced herein (Document #6, Attachment 21 in EDNY Case No. 21-cv-01366): as The Percy Program), benefiting the Percy Class by instilling skills to the Class generally, and the staff of employees of the Employers specifically identified herein. 36. With a reasonable degree of certainty, there is a money trail connecting the fruit of diversion of Plan assets to lining of the pockets of the Employer Operator Defendants 20

Case 1:21-cv-01421-NGG Case MDL No. 3011 Document 1 25-6 Filed 03/17/21 Filed 06/24/21 Page 21 Page of 154 21 of PageID 154 #: 277 and the Party-in-Interest Defendants. There is a preponderance of evidence to connect the March 25, 2020 Order to increase in income of the Owner Operator Defendants, no different than what has been going on for decades. But now the spread of a virus has ripped off the cover exposing the enterprise, an enterprise the operation of which is traceable by a preponderance of evidence to State Officer Defendants. 37. This Complaint is intended to show what led to the employee Class members being in the circumstances of absolute panic when disease began to spread in March of 2020. While the full extent of damages to the Class Plaintiff is not presently known because events are still unfolding, yet, when quantified is likely to be billions of dollars of damage to the Plaintiff Class. Direct damages of diverted Plan assets, and consequential damages of pain and suffering caused by the acts of the Owner Operator Defendants, Party-in- Interest Defendants, and the State Officer Defendants as detailed in related EDNY Case 21-cv-01366, are set forth in the following categories: • ........ million admitted were diverted, converted, and embezzled Plan assets, admitted by certain Employer Defendants in EDNY Case 2:20-cv-06291-GRB-AKT. • ........ million has been identified EDNY Case 2:20-cv-06291-GRB-AKT and this Complaint, as recoverable from culpable parties for prohibited transactions with ERISA Plan assets. • ........ ,155,137 in benefits paid to members of the employee Class which the Employers in related EDNY Case 2:20-cv-06291-GRB-AKT failed to reimburse, for which all of the Employers are jointly and severally liable. • ........ ,370,613 dollars to be paid into the Plan trust to cover future benefits as actuarily projected and set forth in 2:20-cv-06291-GRB-AKT related EDNY Case. • ........ $210 million for the loss of Plan assets in the amount of million through and by the RICO enterprise liability as described in this Complaint to be treble damages. • ........ 0 million in consequential damages and pain and suffering to the members of the Class Plaintiff, these damages expected to grow as events are unfolding and more evidence is available to be quantified at the time of trial, expected to be paid to a fund to be administered by a master for distribution to those members of the Class applying to the fund and qualifying for compensation in accordance with processes and rules as established by the Court for distribution. 38. The actions of the State Officer Defendants of Government Agencies described in this Complaint show an identified conspiracy of the identified Government Agencies, acting independently or in concert, or consciously disregarding the violation of the rights of members of the Class plaintiff, entitling the members of the Class Plaintiff to damages 21

Alternative Employment Practice Percy Program