Public Employee Press

Service Aides at Carter win full-time jobs

After a series of labor-management meetings, the Health and Hospitals Corp. in February restored eight Local 420 Service Aides to full-time employment at the recently opened Henry J. Carter long-term care facility in Harlem.

The eight work in Carter's Food and Nutrition Dept. preparing and distributing patients' meals. They were hired part-time but were assigned more hours to compensate for staffing shortages.

"Since last year Carter has not replaced at least 20 workers who moved on, retired, or were redeployed due to HHC's closing Goldwater Hospital," said DC 37 Hospitals Division Council Rep Sallie Stallings. "Management mismanaged the whole redeployment process, forgetting to figure in the workers who became eligible for retirement. When managers saw they were short-staffed, they made the part-time Service Aides shoulder the extra workload."

But recently their hours were slashed.

"We had people who worked 37½ hours a week for six years who were cut to just 20 hours," said former Chapter Chair Tyrone Franklin. "They couldn't pay their bills. Some got eviction notices. They were especially frustrated because the cuts came during the holiday season and lasted over two months." Franklin and Miguel Ortiz, a former vice chapter chair, helped assemble the workers whose hours were cut and bring their concerns to the union.

"If HHC undercuts our members, we take the necessary steps to expose their unfair practices," said Local President Carmen Charles.

When Carter's Human Resources Dept. tried to justify the reduction of hours, claiming the Service Aides were part-time employees, DC 37 Research and Negotiations Assistant Director Mark Heron went over their heads to HHC's Central Office.

"We used the members' W-2s, because their salaries proved they worked full time," explained Stallings. "Fortunately before we had to file a grievance, HHC had management at Carter restore the members' full-time schedules."