Public Employee Press

Three School Aides get $2,300 each for denied work opportunities at high school

Three veteran School Aides, Sharon Chavez, Emily Cornell and Gisele McLoughlin - with 8, 9 and 14 years on the job - lost potential work during the school year of 2008 at Flushing High School in Queens when the Dept. of Education failed to post the positions for the required seven days and gave the jobs to three workers who had less than two years of seniority.

When they learned that the Dept. of Education planned to expand the General Equivalency Diploma Plus program, the three School Aides, members of Local 372, notified Schools Division Grievance Rep Laura Williams. Williams asked the school's principal to post the positions immediately, but it was posted for only one day before the application deadline, and the jobs went to three employees already working in the state-funded program.

Williams filed the Aides' grievance in July 2008, charging that DOE violated contract provisions on seniority, information at the work location and applications for assignments and requesting the pay the members would have earned during the school year and summer of 2008.

Denied at Steps I, II and III, the grievance was heard in February by an arbitrator, who agreed with the union. The three Aides got $2,300 each and will be able to apply for the position in September.

"You have to give credit to the members because they were on top of the situation the whole time," said Williams.