Public Employee Press

Unions blast city plan that would
cut provisionals, hurt civil service

The District Council 37 Executive Board voted unanimously May 14 to oppose the city’s plan to sharply cut the number of provisional employees “as it relates to titles that are negatively impacted.”

The vote came the day after a meeting where favorable and unfavorable aspects of the plan were discussed among Dept. of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Martha K. Hirst and many affected unions.

The May 13 meeting, called by Hirst and held at DC 37, gave local leaders their first opportunity to express their concerns about the plan, which is required by a new state law that mandates the city to decrease its provisional count from over 35,000 to about 9,500 over the next five years. The law also allows the union to negotiate due process rights for provisionals if the plan is completed.

The plan would reduce the number of provisionals without simply firing most of them. Instead, DCAS would give more civil service exams so provisionals could become permanent — a longtime union goal — but it would also reduce the number of tests needed by consolidating levels and titles and switching competitive jobs to the noncompetitive class.

Hirst submitted the plan to the state Civil Service Commission March 28. The CSC is to hold a hearing on it and has until July 28 to approve, disapprove or send the plan back to the city for modifications.

The strongest opposition to the plan at the May 13 meeting came over its proposals to move positions into the non-competitive class, where jobs are filled by management’s choice without competitive testing. The Executive Board motion, introduced by Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez, charged that this would cause “erosion of the civil service rights of present and future members.” By eliminating exams, said Rodriguez, “DCAS is shutting the door on our members who are provisionals and want to become permanent competitive employees.”

The state Constitution and the new law require civil service hiring and promotions to be based on merit and fitness as determined by competitive examinations whenever practicable.

“Changing titles where it is practicable to test competitively into noncompetitive positions where there is no testing is contradictory to the constitution and the law,” said Evelyn Seinfeld, associate director of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept.

DC 37 General Counsel Eddie Demmings said the plan “abandons the fundamental merit and fitness principle of civil service.”

How could anyone conclude — as DCAS does — that the Child Protective Specialist title should become noncompetitive, asked SSEU Local 371 President Faye Moore, since there are currently two civil service lists for the title and another exam is scheduled for June.

Local 376 President Gene DeMartino said the DCAS proposal is like “solving a problem of unlicensed driving by eliminating the license requirement.”

Since noncompetitive employees cannot take promotional exams, speakers at the meeting charged that DCAS was pulling the career ladder out from under workers. Compared with competitive class employees, noncompetitives also have weaker due process, leave and layoff rights.

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said the unions would put their objections to the plan in writing to present to Hirst at a later meeting. “Our goal is to protect the jobs of members who are currently provisionals through no fault of their own, to give them a clear path to real civil service careers and to strengthen the civil service system,” Roberts said.