Public Employee Press

Public Health Advisors win $316,000

Twenty-five Public Health Advisors in Local 768 received $316,050 recently as the union won a 13-year battle with the Health Dept. over out-of-title work.

"It took us a while, but it was definitely worth it," said retired PHA and Local 768 Chapter Chair Barbara Henderson, who in 1998 filed a group grievance, with the help of former Council Rep Nola Booker.

The PHA IIs in the Bureau of Sexually Transmitted Diseases charged that the agency had assigned them work that was beyond the duties of their job counseling patients who underwent HIV testing at the department's STD clinics. The grievance requested retroactive reimbursement of the difference between their pay and the minimum salary for the Social Worker or Community Coordinator position. The union also asked for Supervising PHAs who did front-line supervisory work to get the pay of Clinic Managers.

After management rejected the grievance at step 3, an arbitrator agreed that the Local 768 members were doing out-of-title work but decided that the titles the union proposed were not appropriate bases for monetary awards. In 2007, the arbitrator directed the city and the union to bargain in good faith and reach an equitable monetary award.

Repeated city appeals were rejected in court, but they delayed the settlement until May, when an agreement provided a total of $316,050, including back pay of $17,100 for 12 members.

Professional Division Rep Cynthia Keyes Padilla, Assistant Director of Research and Negotiations Michele Trester, Assistant General Counsel Dena Klein and former Assistant General Counsel Leonard Polletta handled the case in recent years.