By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

It was déjà vu all over again for Watershed Maintainer Dennis Mayes, who recently won a second out-of-title grievance for more than $100,000 against the city Dept. of Environmental Protection.

According to union attorneys, when he gets the check Mr. Mayes will set the record for the highest total out-of-title work payments to an individual in DC 37 history.

The latest award and the Local 376 member's 1998 payment of $103,000 will add up to about $235,000 dollars, said DC 37 Council Rep Pat Mitchell.

The new arbitration ruling will force the city agency to dig deep in its pockets during a time of fiscal shortfalls to right a wrong it could have avoided.

Mr. Mayes does the work of a Tractor Operator, but DEP pays him much less as a Watershed Maintainer. For seven years, DEP has used his expertise without appropriate compensation.
The second victory came because "DEP tried to circumvent the earlier ruling, which stated in part that Mr. Mayes was working out-of-title because of his high level of skill and independent judgement," said DC 37 lawyer Len Polletta.

After the first decision, DEP had a district supervisor check on Mr. Mayes. "He'd leave in about 10 minutes," said Mr. Mayes. "We'd look at a job and he'd ask me what I think should be done - 95 percent of the time, I worked independently."

Pat Mitchell filed another grievance on Mr. Mayes' behalf in June 1999. On the second go-round, the arbitrator focused once again on the nature of the work.

"I thought if I showed DEP what I could do, they'd hire me as a Tractor Operator," said Mr. Mayes, who had developed 25 years of construction know-how while working for his father. "DEP liked my work, but just took advantage of my skills."

When Mr. Mayes saw DEP had stopped paying him at the higher out-of-title rate, he began documenting his daily duties. He photographed the 23-car parking lot he built, the foundation for an explosion-proof building he dug, the downed trees he removed and the washed out roads he rebuilt.

His experience was invaluable to DEP. For instance, where engineers had okayed digging a road, Mr. Mayes "sensed something was there." He discovered cable and phone wires buried a few feet below the site. Cutting the wires would have wiped out AT&T service in Armonk and hit New York City with high damage costs.

Since the Sept. 11 attack, Mr. Mayes has operated backhoes to dig trenches for electrical lines to beef up security. "If I am not there to dig," Mr. Mayes said, "then the electricians can't do their job."

Although the arbitrator cannot force DEP to make Mr. Mayes a Tractor Operator, in January he again ordered DEP to pay Mr. Mayes the difference between the pay he received and a Tractor Operator's wages. The payment will be retroactive to July 1998. DEP management upstate has pressured members to do out-of-title work for many years, said Local 376 President Ed Bennett. "But this case shows that we can fight back and win."