PLANNING ACTION
— PEF Region 11 vocational rehabilitation counselors discuss ways to achieve reallocation at a Local Issues Committee meeting. VESID office members include Brian Alvarado, Iris Allen, Lorie Boyd, Helen Maleh, Michele Delany, Ebony Tyler, Chanpreet Singh, Lourdes Rolon, Wendy Hersh and Angela Lockhart.
— Photo by Jemma Marie-Hanson
Members unite in fight for equity
Vocational counselors battle for reallocation
By DEBORAH A. MILES
Assigning employees additional work is becoming more of a problem in various agencies, but PEF members at the Brooklyn District Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID) are fighting back. They have resurrected a long overdue crusade to bring attention to their plight.
Their cry: “Don’t Procrastinate. Reallocate!”
Vocational counselors have been given extra financial bookkeeping responsibilities, while the state also mandated them to obtain additional certifications and increase their skills in their areas of specialty, according to PEF Region 11 Coordinator Jemma Marie-Hanson.
"These members basically want equity with other professionals who also hold Master's degrees and additional certification in their specialty, and who do the same work," Marie-Hanson said. "And they want to protect the clients."
Paperwork vs. clients
Instead of devoting more time to counseling clients, the vocational rehabilitation counselors are buried in the time-demanding task of keeping computer case records for them. They fault the state Department of Civil Service and the Division of Budget for this situation, which has escalated during the past 20 years.
“Decisions are being made by people with no vocational rehabilitation background,” said Ebony Tyler, a vocational rehabilitation counselor at Brooklyn VESID and a Division 376C steward.
“We each have caseloads of more than 200 consumers and are responsible for the financial aspects of their services,” Tyler said. “We would like to put the emphasis back on counseling individuals with disabilities and less on their financial responsibilities.”
Putting pressure on SED
PEF members at Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan VESID offices have formed a Local Issues Committee and are planning a letter-writing campaign to legislators, Civil Service Department and VESID officials. Union members will wear their “Don’t Procrastinate. Reallocate!” buttons on key occasions when top-level VESID officials are expected to visit the office.
“Our goal is to put pressure on the state Education Department to get an answer from Civil Service as to why they refuse to reallocate our salaries to a higher pay grade,” Tyler said. The counselors have requested their salaries be reallocated upwards by two pay grades.
“The purpose is to let VESID officials know this is not a dead issue,” Marie-Hanson said. “It’s one way to get across the point of getting reallocation for the vocational counselors.”
She said if equity measures are not realized, the state will not be able to retain its vocational rehabilitation counseling personnel or attract new hires.
The effort is being spearheaded in Brooklyn and is gaining momentum at VESID offices in Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx and Long Island, according to Marie-Hanson.
Approximately 300 vocational counselors work in more than 25 VESID district and satellite offices. They serve 100,000 clients and spend $120 million annually for support services.
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