Public Employee Press

Nurses win on tuition and differentials

Education is an essential ingredient for union members who aspire to climb the career ladder. DC 37 encourages members to take classes and workshops, reimburses tuition expenses for many through its Education Fund, and has negotiated contracts in some bargaining units that require management to pay tuition reimbursement as well as pay differentials for earning advanced degrees.

When the Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene tried to deny these rights to members of Local 436, DC 37 and the local went to arbitration and won a victory that covers hundreds of union nurses.

In the latest battle of a dispute that began in 2002, United Federation of Nurses and Epidemiologists Local 436 and DC 37 recently went to bat for Public Health Nurses Angela Fox and Terraine Darraugh.

DOHMH had denied them the tuition reimbursement and master’s degree differential they were due under the local contract. DC 37 Council Rep Stephanie Miller had earlier filed a grievance on behalf of Ann Boresky for payment of the master’s differential.

The arbitrated grievances on behalf of Junior Public Health Nurses and Public Health Nurses argued that the agency violated the contract by refusing to pay the master’s differential to nurses holding master’s degrees and by refusing tuition reimbursement to nurses with one year of service who had completed job-related courses, workshops, seminars and conferences.

On May 25, Arbitrator Gayle A. Gavin ruled that the contract provides both tuition reimbursement and the master’s differential for qualified school nurses, PHNs and Jr. PHNs, whether they work full-time or part-time.

The arbitrator found that nothing in the contract supported the city’s position that only those school nurses who have worked 18 consecutive months in the title and are in pay class A (full-time per annum employees) or pay class W (full-time per diem employees) are eligible. “This is a great victory for our members. It covers not only these two nurses but hundreds of nurses,” said Local 436 President Gloria Acevedo.