Section 3246. Employees of the corporation

1.  In order to reduce its
  operating expenses the corporation shall,  to  the  extent  practicable,
  utilize  existing employees of the state, pursuant to section thirty-two
  hundred forty-eight of this title, hiring its own employees only if  the
  necessary  functions  of the corporation cannot be performed without the
  hiring of such employees. Employee compensation shall be paid only  from
  appropriations made to the corporation by law.
    2.  In  accordance with the provisions of section seventy of the civil
  service law and any  applicable  collective  bargaining  agreement,  the
  state  and  the  corporation  shall  have  the  power to provide for the
  transfer to the corporation of such agents, employees and facilities  of
  the  state  as  shall  enable  the  corporation to fulfill its corporate
  purposes. Employees of the state  so  transferred  shall  be  appointed,
  without   further  examination,  to  the  corporation  in  the  same  or
  equivalent classification and position they hold  at  the  time  of  the
  transfer.
    3.  A  transferred  employee  shall  remain  in  the  same  collective
  bargaining unit as was the case prior to his or her transfer;  successor
  employees  to  the  positions  held by such transferred employees shall,
  consistent with the provisions of article fourteen of the civil  service
  law,  be  included  in  the  same  unit as their predecessors. Employees
  serving in positions in newly created titles shall be assigned  to  such
  same collective bargaining unit if they would have been assigned to such
  unit  were  such  titles  created  prior  to  the  establishment  of the
  corporation. Nothing contained in  this  title  shall  be  construed  to
  diminish (a) the rights of employees pursuant to a collective bargaining
  agreement  or  (b) to affect existing law with respect to an application
  to the public employment relations board seeking a  designation  by  the
  board that certain persons are managerial or confidential.
    4.  The  corporation  and  its  employees  shall be subject to article
  fourteen of the civil service law and for all purposes  the  corporation
  shall be deemed a "public employer".