Public Employee Press

Night pay beef: Highway Sups win $1/4 million

An impartial arbitrator recently bulldozed the city’s 30-year long roadblock to fair wages by awarding night differential pay to 120 members of Dept. of Transportation Supervisors Local 1157.

The 2002 decision puts an average of $2,000 each into night crew supervisors’ pockets for overtime they have worked since 1998.

The arbitrator agreed with the union that DOT had violated the Consent Determination, an agreement like a contract, which mandates that a night differential be paid for all night hours worked — including overtime — and not just for the regular eight-hour shift.

“The city had gotten away with this wrongful practice ever since the 1970s,” said Local President Mickey McFarland. “The city was punishing people who work the worst hours. We sacrifice time with our families and work under more dangerous conditions at night out on the city’s roadways.”

Highway Supervisors oversee the maintenance of arterial roadways, tunnels and bridges. They supervise street paving, milling and repairs of cave-ins and potholes. But for decades DOT cheated night supervisors out of pay — nickels and dimes that over the years totaled more than a quarter-million dollars.

The local originally filed a group grievance for a dozen members. Blue Collar Division Council Rep Bill Fenty and Mr. McFarland then included the entire local, since day crews begin work at 6 a.m. and the night differential rate runs from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m.

In the arbitration, DC 37 lawyer Kim Hsueh contended that a proper reading of the Consent Determination would pay night Supervisors an extra differential rate on their overtime hours. Nine months after the arbitrator’s ruling, the city was still dragging its heels, defying the decision and refusing to pay the members their money.

In February, the union took the matter to state Supreme Court to force the city to pay the $500 to $8,000 per worker. “The overtime was a few bucks a day, but over weeks, months and years it adds up,” said Mr. McFarland. The members were paid in October 2003. “After such a long wait, the money is a godsend for us. As prevailing rate employees appealing our pay under Section 220 we have gone without a raise since 2000.”

As PEP went to press, Local 376, which represents Highway Repairers, took steps to file a group grievance on the same issue.