BATTERY PARK CITY — The Battery Park City Authority is drafting new rules for compensating fired employees following an outcry from 19 workers who lost their jobs in November.
Those workers, most of whom had been at the authority for more than 10 years, were upset that they received just three weeks of severance pay and health insurance when the authority dismissed them without notice on Nov. 9.
On Tuesday, BPCA Chairman Bill Thompson said the authority had no guidelines for compensating fired workers but would develop a new policy immediately.
"We're asking staff to develop a severance policy in the next week to 10 days," Thompson said in his first public comments on the dispute.
"We expect to take action within the next week to 10 days."
The new policy will apply retroactively to the 19 fired employees, a BPCA spokesman said.
Hector Calderon, who worked for the authority for 17 years before being fired in November, was thrilled to hear that his severance package might be increased.
"It's a positive sign for us," said Calderon, 56, a Bronx resident and former director of the authority's diversity program.
"It beats nothing. I really appreciate that the board listened to us and was able to answer our pleas."
Calderon and several other fired workers returned to the authority Tuesday for the first BPCA board meeting since the layoffs.
While waiting for the meeting to start, the workers reunited with their former colleagues, embracing longtime friends and wiping tears from their eyes.
The fired workers, who are calling themselves the "Battery Park City 19," gave a printed statement to the authority's board asking for additional severance pay, totaling at least one week for every year served.
The workers also asked for extended medical coverage and retirement benefits for those who were just a few months away from retiring.