Public Employee Press

City Park Worker’s grievance nets back pay award of $1,300

City Park Worker Arthur Elmore received $1,300 in back pay from the Parks Dept. to settle his grievance over three months of out-of-title work supervising JTPs and WEPs at Bush Park in Queens.
“In the summer of 2003, my immediate supervisor asked me to be Crew Chief to a dozen JTPs in District 2,” Elmore said.

His new responsibilities included “driving JTPs and WEPs to assignments, seeing that they had gloves and equipment, and making sure they were sober and ready for work,” he said.

Functioning as a supervisor, Elmore made up work schedules and evaluated the performance of the Job Training Participants and Work Experience Program participants. He recommended at least three of them to management and the agency hired them.

“But when I got my paycheck, the shocker was that the $250-a-week differential was missing,” said CPW Elmore, who is also a shop steward. “So I waited 30 days and then filed a grievance.”

CPWs assigned as crew chiefs to supervise JTPs and WEPs are supposed to be paid the same as Associate Park Service Workers, who supervise workers in those programs as part of their job.

“This happens often as more WEPS and JTPs are used,” said Local 1505 President Michael Hood, who worked with DC 37 lawyer Diana York on the case.

“The agency assigned the supervisory duties and promised the money, Elmore did the work, but the Parks Department didn’t come through with the money,” Hood said.

At Step 2, the Parks Dept. agreed to pay Elmore, but not the full amount. Management claimed he did not supervise the WEPs, “but since I was doing WEP time sheets, we had all the proof to show I had done the work,” he pointed out.

A week before the case was scheduled for arbitration, the Parks Dept. offered a settlement. “Mike Hood was at all the hearings and moved the case forward,” said Elmore.

“Persistence is very important,” said Hood. “We did not get bitter in the process but we got better in how we fought this grievance. This shows members that if you do out-of-title work, you’re entitled to be compensated for it.”