Public Employee Press

Union slams city's use of provisional workers and demands speedier hiring of civil servants

“We need to be a part of the working group charged with reclassifying titles.”
— Michelle Keller-Ng, Local 375 1st VP

DC 37 leaders returned to the City Council on Feb. 27 to build their campaign against city agencies continuing to use tens of thousands of provisional employees and to speed up the testing process.

In a follow-up to a Nov. 19 joint hearing of the Committee on Civil Service and Labor and the Committee on Governmental Operations, council members closely questioned Dept. of Citywide Administrative Services commissioners on their progress in reducing the number of provisionals employed by the city.

Michelle Keller-Ng, 1st vice president of Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375, spoke about the failure of an agency working group charged with reclassifying titles to seek union input.

"We need to be a part of that working group," she said. "So we want to be part of this conversation as it's going on."

Motor Vehicles Operators Local 983 President Joe Puleo repeated his demand for more exams for his members. Stressing this need, he told the council, "Most of my workers are low-wage earners, so civil service has a deep impact on my membership." Specifically citing Urban Park Rangers, Puleo said, "They are constantly being replaced due to the fact that the attrition rate is so high. We had an examination last year, yet they still haven't been called off the list. Because of these delays, they get discouraged, and many leave."

Bolstering his argument was Local 983 member Tiffany D'Aquila, an Urban Park Ranger, who testified about her experience with the testing process. "It is nearly impossible to retain quality people when the salary starts out at $32,000 and caps out at $37,000," she told the council.

After waiting for more than two years, D'Aquila took the civil service exam in June 2014. Although she received a preliminary score of 95 percent, she has yet to receive an official score or be placed on the list. She added that her situation is often repeated with other workers.

Puleo summed up the situation for D'Aquila and her fellow Urban Park Rangers: "You don't have the dedicated workforce because you don't know what will happen, and when they do take the exam, they get no information," he said. He reminded the council members that the Parks Dept. is down to less than 300 officers - from 450 - who are responsible for patrolling 29,000 acres of city parkland.