Public Employee Press

School violates contract; member gets paid

Iris Hernandez, a Family Worker at PS 134 in District 1, was all set to work in the Manhattan school's 2009 summer program, just as she had done for 18 consecutive years.

Under the Local 372 contract, her seniority entitled her to the assignment. But without any explanation to Hernandez, the Dept. of Education denied her the assignment and gave the position to another employee who had only two years of experience and had never worked in the summer program.

Hernandez quickly contacted her grievance rep, Latreva Scott, who filed a grievance on her behalf. The grievance charged that the DOE had violated the collective bargaining agreement by denying Hernandez the opportunity to work in the summer and asked that DOE pay her the 93.5 hours of wages she would have earned in the summer program.

At Step 1 of the grievance procedure, DOE management understood that a wrong had been done to Hernandez and reached an agreement with the union to pay her for the 93.5 hours at the rate in effect in July 2009. The agreement was signed on Oct. 11, 2011 and Hernandez has been paid for the hours she deserved to work.

"Even though our member had worked in the program for almost 20 years, someone still tried to get around the contract," said Scott. "We always have to be vigilant and keep an eye on management."