Public Employee Press

Local 376 hangs up on DOT cell phone ban

The impartial Board of Collective Bargaining sided with DC 37 and ordered the Dept. of Transportation to rescind its 2005 policy banning field employees from using cell phones.

The board ruled that the unilateral policy violated the citywide collective bargaining agreement and DOT’s legal duty to negotiate such changes in working conditions.

“DOT has an obligation to bargain over these issues and we have, once again, been successful in establishing that,” said Tom Kattou, secretary-treasurer of Local 376 and Blue Collar Division grievance rep.

DC 37 and Local 376 filed improper practice charges in July 2005 after DOT issued its new policy requiring road repair crewmembers to “keep cell phones off at all times during working hours, and limit personal cell phone use to off-duty and authorized break times.” The agency threatened to discipline violators.

The policy affected Highway Repairers in Local 376, Assistant HRs in Local 983 and Motor Grader Operators and Gas Roller Engineers in other unions.

In the past, the field employees were permitted to use personal cell phones in emergencies. A longstanding DOT practice encouraged Supervisors to rely on workers’ personal cell phones
because the agency does not have enough radios, said Local 376 President Gene DeMartino in an affidavit.

Management argued that workers who use cell phones while operating heavy equipment pose a safety hazard, but failed to offer evidence of its claim.

Under the new policy, workers’ family calls were relayed over the Nextel phones DOT provides for Supervisors. Service was faulty at best, said DeMartino. Important messages were subject to error or just missed. Sometimes no one is in a dispatcher’s office to answer calls.

Third- and fourth-party message relay intrudes on privacy, and compromises sensitive issues, former DC 37 lawyer Fausto Zapata also argued.

The new policy also failed to provide a means for a crewmember to get in touch with a family member should an emergency arise.

DC 37 argued that use of personal cell phones has been a “significant benefit to employees in the field” as the only means of fast and convenient communications. The BCB agreed that the policy interfered with employees’ rights. The board ruled that cell phone use is a mandatory subject of bargaining and ordered DOT to “rescind, cease and desist” use of the policy.

“This case confirms that DOT, like all other city agencies, cannot issue unilateral policies or change employment conditions without negotiating with the union first,” said DC 37 attorney Robin Roach.