Thanks to a union lawsuit, 136 city workers will have the opportunity to be selected from a civil service list for permanent Recreation Director jobs.

The city established the list for the first time in some 20 years as a result of a lawsuit by AFSCME Local 299.

“The Parks Department is now on notice to hire people from the list, and we will be vigilant about seeing that it complies,” said Local 299 President Louis Sbar. A few agencies have already appointed people from the list, but not the Parks and Recreation Dept., he said.

Last April, the union took the city to court to force it to hold an exam. Kim Hsueh, an assistant general counsel in the DC 37 Legal Dept., handled the lawsuit.

Under a settlement with the union, the city agreed to hold an open competitive Recreation Director exam by Dec. 31, 2003, and to establish a certified list by June 30, 2004. The city “established,” or announced, the list in May. If the city doesn’t appoint workers from the list to fill vacant positions, the union can seek to compel it to do so through another lawsuit. The list will remain valid for four years.

Local 299 member Bruce Cannon, a provisional RD who is director of the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre in Central Park, is 11th on the list.

“This would validate my 30 years of working for the city,” said Mr. Cannon, who is a Puppeteer.

As a provisional employee, Mr. Cannon lacks the job protection of permanent civil servants. And as a victim of the 1991 city layoffs, Mr. Cannon knows first-hand what that protection means in practical terms. That year, Mr. Cannon was among five provisional employees at the theater who were laid off. “Permanent” status is not a guarantee against layoffs, but in fact the puppet workers who had permanent civil service status were spared that fate.

Besides job security protections, civil service status provides permanent employees with legal disciplinary and other rights that provisional workers don’t have.