Public Employee Press

Construction supervisors beat DDC lunch stretch

Union action forced the Dept. of Design and Construction to drop its unilateral extension of the lunch hours of nearly 150 Local 375 members.

The union charged that by refusing to negotiate, management had violated the city’s Collective Bargaining Law. On Sept. 9, DDC agreed to end the longer meal breaks, which kept the employees on the job longer.

The lunch extension came with altered work schedules. The schedule change cost members overtime pay, disrupted their family schedules and weakened DDC’s ability to monitor the safety and quality of construction.

Private sector construction crews typically work a 40-hour week, with five 8-hour days, but under DC 37’s Citywide Contract, the DDC field staff who watch over the contractors’ crews have 35-hour work weeks. To monitor all the construction, the DDC employees worked from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., including a ½-hour unpaid lunch break and one hour of paid overtime each day.

This allowed the city inspectors and resident engineers to properly ensure that the work done and materials used by the contractors’ crews were in accord with project specifications and government regulations.

In November 2002, DDC shifted the workday to start at 8 a.m. and mandated the employees to take one hour for lunch. In a memo, Deputy Commissioner Richard Ocken called the disputed change “part of our effort to reduce costs.” DDC in effect had changed the work schedule to avoid paying overtime.

Management met with Local 375 but refused to bargain over its unilateral changes. The union answered with an improper practice complaint, filed March 21 with the impartial Office of Collective Bargaining.

“This violation disrupted the lives of our members,” said Local 375 President Claude Fort. The change also cut the number of workers assigned in the early morning, raising concerns about workplace safety and the quality of construction.

“Another issue for the local was good government,” said Local 375 Rep Jon Forster. The new scheduling left gaps in which the construction crews were not properly monitored, he said.

After discussions with the union, DDC reinstated the ½-hour lunches. The settlement upheld the principle that changes in items covered by the collective bargaining agreement, including the length of the lunch hour, must be negotiated with the union.

“But the later starting time still raises serious concerns about construction site safety and the protection of taxpayers money,” said Assistant General Counsel Robin Roach, who worked on the case.