Mobilization
to fight out-of-title work paying off for Divisions 167, 243
By SHERRY HALBROOK
It takes courage, determination and hard work to get a good contract, and it
takes more of the same to enforce it.
Much of that burden — especially the courage to risk retaliation — falls on the
individual members who experience the contract violations.
This year, some PEF members who mobilized around their contract issue are
finding out how successful they can be.
Last year, members of PEF Divisions 167 and 243 at Western New York
Developmental Disabilities Services Office (WNYDDSO) made up their minds to do
something about a chronic and widespread problem of out-of-title work.
More than 25 members in the social worker assistant 2 and habilitation
specialist 1 civil service titles, salary grade 14, were convinced that, by
functioning as Medicaid service coordinators, they were doing work appropriate
to social work assistant 3, a grade 17 item. That’s an annual pay disparity of
nearly $6,500 at the hiring rate.
They brought the issue to the joint labor-management forum, but were told the
DDSO couldn’t promote them because they were not on a civil service list of
eligible candidates for the assistant 3 title, and no exam for it was scheduled.
At the suggestion of their PEF field representative, Peter Yurkewicz, the
divisions began mobilizing their affected members to file PS&T Contract Article
17 out-of-title grievances which, if sustained, could result in their being paid
for some of the time they performed the grade 17 duties and possibly to their
reclassifications to the higher job title.
“It was challenging to contact and convince so many members to do this,
especially in Division 243 which is spread over many small sites across the
Southern Tier,” Yurkewicz said.
With the support of PEF’s Member Mobilization Department and Region 1
Coordinator Kevin Hintz, council leaders Carla Van Note and David Chudy got the
word out, and gradually convinced their members to join the effort.
“I’m a social worker 2 and Carla is a social worker assistant 2 and one of the
grievants,” Chudy said. “We know this program inside out, so it was easy for us
to articulate this issue. Once a few people decided to file, it was like a dam
bursting.”
PEF’s Civil Service Enforcement Department provided information from an earlier
state review of the job duties of these two titles, and Yurkewicz began filing
the grievances at Step 2 of the grievance process. The state Office of Mental
Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, which operates WNYDDSO, conceded the
PEF members were, indeed, assigned to function at the higher title level.
That kicked the grievances up to Step 3, where the Governor’s Office of Employee
Relations and the state director of classification and compensation at the
Department of Civil Service reviewed the issue. They, too, agreed the grade 14
employees were doing the grade 17 work and should be compensated for it.
So far, at least 17 of these grievances have been sustained and WNYDDSO has been
ordered to pay the members for the difference in salary going back to 15 days
prior to their grievance filing dates. The employer is also ordered to stop
working these employees out of title.
“All of these members met the minimum qualifications for the assistant 3 title,
and some of them have been reclassified to it,” Yurkewicz said. “The DDSO needs
people to do this work, so we’re hopeful the state will continue to reclassify
our members who are already doing that job.”
Meanwhile, Divisions 167 and 243 have “kicked it up a notch.”
They mobilized approximately 20 of their members in grade 16, nurse 2 titles to
grieve their regular assignments which they believe have them functioning as
grade 19, community mental health nurses. So far, at least one of those
grievances has made it through Step 3, and it was sustained.
“The state is doing the right thing in acknowledging these unfair assignments
and directing the agency to pay our members appropriately for the work they do,”
said PEF Director of Labor Relations Roger Scales.
“Our staff is doing good work on this,” he said, “and our members are proving
they can successfully address their problems when they work together through
PEF.”
Chudy said the divisions have gained strength, and “it’s actually improved our
labor-management relations.”
The Communicator June 2007
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