Metro

Unions suing Andy

ALBANY — State-worker unions filed a lawsuit against the Cuomo administration because, they say, retirees are being hit with hikes in their health-care costs.

The unions agreed this year to higher health-insurance contributions, but only for active members and not for retirees, they claim in the suit announced yesterday.

Seven unions sued the Cuomo administration in federal court for “unilaterally” increasing their retirees’ required health-care premium contributions by 2 percentage points. That ups the annual cost for a typical retiree covered under New York’s Empire Plan by about $150 for individual plans and about $460 for family plans.

The unions also charged that Gov. Cuomo is planning a 6 percentage point hike in the required contribution for state workers who retire on or after Jan. 1.

They said they never negotiated such increases for their retirees in the multi-year contracts their members ratified this year.

But Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto said, “The law clearly allows the administration to apply the terms of a new contract to retirees, and it has been well known standard practice to do so.”