PEF drives home DOT out-of-title violation

When state Transportation Department officials rerouted civil engineer 1 Stuart Sprague onto a 56-day detour as a transportation maintenance engineer 2, they should have paid the toll for working him at a higher pay grade.

But PEF fought back and made sure he got it.

The case went to state Supreme Court in Albany County after the Governor’s Office of Employment Relations sided with DOT and denied PEF’s out-of-title-work grievance.

DOT argued that it had to hand off some of the higher level duties to the civil engineer temporarily after his supervisor retired last September. The department said such assignments for up to 60 days are a longstanding policy and do not violate the contract. And DOT said it needed that time to appoint a permanent replacement for the retired supervisor.

PEF said DOT knew about the retirement for at least 60 days before it happened and the PS&T contract allows temporary out-of-title work assignments only for true emergencies. And even then employees must be compensated for performing the higher level duties.

The judge agreed with PEF.

He found the civil engineer was assigned to perform the full-range of the supervisor’s duties for the entire 56 days; that it was not an emergency; DOT did violate the contract; and it must pay the engineer for having worked at the higher pay grade for that time. — Sherry Halbrook

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