Public Employee Press

Grievance gets $125,000 for 10 underpaid DEP workers

Ten Associate Air Pollution Inspectors at the Dept. of Environmental Protection who were underpaid for years received a total of nearly $125,000 after the union challenged the shortfall.

The underpayments, from as far back as 2007, were because DEP didn't properly calculate pay increases under the union's 2005-08 economic agreement. The retroactive pay ranged from $5,800 for a retiree to more than $19,000 for one of the nine current workers. DEP has adjusted the workers' salaries.

Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375 member Steven McCoy worked with coworkers to document the problem. After he took the issue to DEP and got nowhere, he met with then DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts, now retired, and Research and Negotiations Dept. Director Evelyn Seinfeld. Lisa Riccio, an assistant director in the department, studied McCoy's calculations and discussed the problem with officials at DEP and the Office of Payroll Administration, who acknowledged the error.

"The moral of this story is that you should read your pay stub and be persistent if something is wrong," Riccio said. She added that members should keep their contract handy to check on pay increases and should be prepared to grieve any pay dispute.

"Our members and the union worked hard to document the underpayment," Local 375 President Claude Fort said. "The agency had no choice but to acknowledge the error. I'm happy that DEP decided to make our members whole rather than drag out the case."