Public Employee Press

ACS provisionals are finding new jobs, not threatened pink slips

Eighty-nine of 97 provisional workers targeted for layoffs at the Administration for Children’s Services have found new city jobs with pay and responsibilities similar to their former positions.

The provisional jobs were among 650 positions slated for elimination under an ACS plan to restructure its foster care services. By planning and announcing the restructuring unilaterally, the union charges, ACS violated its legal obligation to negotiate on the impact of the plan. The affected workers are Child Welfare Specialists and CWS Supervisors represented by Social Service Employees Union Local 371.

In March, the agency announced that it would send layoff notices to the provisionals in April. However, after a heated City Council hearing on the restructuring on March 29, the agency informed the union that it would not send out the notice. After the hearing, DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts and SSEU Local 371 President Charles Ensley met with Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs. The city then held a job fair and gave the provisional workers the opportunity to apply for other city jobs.

The workers have found positions at the Human Resources Administration, Health and Hospitals Corp., Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene and ACS. “We will do everything possible to save any member, provisional or permanent, who is threatened with layoff,” said Ensley.

Meanwhile, the union and ACS continue to meet about the restructuring. Union participants in the discussions have included Ensley, top Local 371 officers and rank-and-file representatives, including Bureau of Child Welfare Chair Bonnie Bufford and Vice Chair Robert Triplett, as well as DC 37’s Research and Negotiations Director Dennis Sullivan, Associate Director Evelyn Seinfeld, and Assistant Director Nola Brooker. In addition, Associate General Counsel Mary O’Connell and Senior Assistant General Counsel Robin Roach attended.

State Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead has postponed a hearing until June 1 to let discussions continue.

“The decision of ACS to unilaterally plan a restructuring that would take away the livelihood of 650 dedicated union workers was unconscionable,” DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said. “The city is obligated to negotiate on the impact of restructurings, and we will always hold management accountable to that obligation.”