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Public Employee Press
Local 768 wins $100,000 grievance
An eight-year struggle to win pay equity for Public Health Advisers in the school health program culminated in city payments totaling almost $100,000 for 22 Local 768 members.
Under the January settlement of the local's step 3 group grievance, the PHAs (School Health) in the Health Dept. are now eligible for the contractual 15-year longevity increment and the three-year longevity differential.
The 22 grievants will get the increments and differentials for up to six years prior to March 16, 2009, when the victorious grievance was filed.
An air-tight case
Because the school health PHAs work for the 10-month school year, Health Dept. management had deemed them part-time/per diem employees and claimed they were ineligible for the longevity payments that other PHAs receive.
PHA Carol Williams came on the job in 1995 and read the contract. "It was crazy that the department was excluding school health," she concluded.
Member Mary Serra learned about the discrepancy at a union meeting and sought other members willing to join in a group grievance, which DC 37 Rep Cynthia Keyes-Padilla filed and handled through the third step of the procedure.
DC 37 Assistant General Counsel Erica Gray-Nelson was prepared to bring the case to arbitration when the settlement was reached on Jan. 28. A letter reflecting the agreement will be incorporated into the contract.
Local 768 President Fitz Reid praised the work on the case by Keyes-Padilla, Gray-Nelson and Michele Trester, an assistant director of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept. He noted that the case filed by Keyes-Padilla stood up to all of the challenges it faced.
"This is an important victory," Reid told members Feb. 28 at a membership meeting, "because it brought our members justice in this eight-year dispute and won monetary gains in the current dismal economic environment."
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