PEP, May 2007: Union blocks layoffs and restructuring at ACS

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

Local 371 is battling a plan to restructure foster care services that would result in 650 layoffs at the Administration for Children’s Services.

“The way the plan was presented was outrageous and unprecedented,” said Charles Ensley, president of Social Service Employees Union Local 371. “They came like thieves in the night to steal our jobs.”

By concocting the scheme in secrecy, the agency violated its obligation under the city Collective Bargaining Law to negotiate with the union on the impact of the restructuring, union officials say.

A favorable decision by the impartial Board of Collective Bargaining opened the way for the local to fight the restructuring and layoffs in court.

On April 13, a majority of the board voted to authorize Local 371 to seek relief in court, in effect supporting the union’s contention that ACS had improperly failed to bargain over the 650 layoffs.

State Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead on April 20 turned down the local’s request to immediately freeze the restructuring and layoffs. But she directed the city and the union to return to court on May 4 to consider the union’s case for halting the plan. In the meantime, Justice Edmead strongly urged the parties to conduct meaningful negotiations over the plan.

Burden on city
Justice Edmead signed an order requested by Local 371 requiring ACS and the city to explain why the court should not issue an order directing them to bargain with the union over the impact of the reorganization and to cease and desist from plans to lay off employees.

The order puts the burden on the city to justify the restructuring and layoffs at ACS’s Office of Contract Agency Case Management.

The local launched a high-octane fight-back campaign immediately after the agency announced the restructuring and layoffs in the media in March.

With the support of DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts and the union’s Research and Negotiations and Legal departments, the local demanded meetings with labor relations and ACS officials. It arranged for an oversight hearing by the City Council Committee on General Welfare, reached out to the media and kept members updated through meetings at their work locations and postings on the local’s Web site, www.sseu371.org.

“While we respect management’s goal of improving services, the law is clear that both sides must meet to bargain over the impact of restructurings on workers,” Roberts said. “It’s common sense that management should involve labor, because our members with hands-on experience know best how to improve services.”

At Ensley’s request, said Roberts, she joined him in meeting with top administration officials at City Hall to press the case against the layoffs and to urge the city to hold a job fair for 97 endangered provisionals.

Later on March 29, Local 371 members packed the Council Chambers for the hearing, and several Council members excoriated the agency for violating the labor law by not negotiating. The day after the heated session, ACS notified the union that the layoff notices that were scheduled to be given to the 97 provisional workers would not be sent out. Provisionals lack the same job protections as permanent workers.

The restructuring calls for creating just over 500 new positions that require a master’s degree. Incumbent workers are in positions that require a bachelor’s degree. The local faults ACS for planning to fill the positions with people from the outside when it already has many qualified and experienced workers at the agency.

The Dept. of Citywide Administrative Services scheduled an all-day job fair for provisional Child Welfare Specialists and CWS Supervisors on April 24 at Emigrant Savings Bank on Chambers Street in Manhattan. Recruiters from ACS and other city agencies encouraged workers to indicate their job preferences. Interviews were scheduled for April 27, as PEP went to press.

“Under the reorganization, case management would be contracted out primarily to private agencies, with oversight by city technical people or ‘performance monitors’ reviewing computer reports,” Ensley testified March 29 at the City Council hearing.

“We fail to see how social workers at provider agencies could appreciate having their work reviewed by technical personnel with no child welfare experience. This is a total abdication of responsibility by the city, which is legally responsible for the care of abused and neglected children.”