Public Employee Press

DOT ordered to correct pay of parking meter workers in Local 1455

In a pair of victories for Local 1455 and DC 37, the Office of Labor Relations has ordered the Dept. of Transportation to review its records dating back to 2004 to correct the compensatory time balances of Supervising City Parking Meter Service Workers and the holiday pay of City Parking Meter Service Workers.

President Michael DeMarco went to the union’s Legal and Research Depts. when the Dept. of Citywide Administrative Services classified about 38 supervisors as exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s time-and-a-half pay requirement for overtime work. DOT budget constraints and their exempt status meant the workers would be paid only straight comp time for the overtime hours worked.

With help from Associate Director Evelyn Seinfeld of the union’s Research and Negotiations Dept. and Associate General Counsel Mary O’Connell, the local filed a complaint with OLR. The union argued successfully that workers in the supervisory title did not supervise, evaluate or discipline DOT employees and were therefore not exempt from the overtime pay requirement. OLR reclassified the title under the FLSA and ordered the agency to review the records from the last three years and compensate workers who were not paid time-and-a-half for overtime.

The second victory came after the local filed a group grievance for 47 City PMSWs whose regular workweek is Tuesday through Saturday. In December 2004, when the Christmas and New Year’s holidays fell on Saturdays, DOT made a scheduling change that required the PMSWs to work Monday through Friday for those two weeks. DC 37 lawyer Joseph Barrett pointed out that the Citywide Contract prohibits agencies from rescheduling “days off or tours of duty to avoid the payment of overtime compensation.” The union maintained that DOT made the last-minute change to avoid paying overtime holiday pay to the workers, and OLR agreed. As part of the consent award, the 47 PMSWs who participated in the grievance will each get eight hours of comp time pay, four for each holiday week.

“I am happy we were able to work together with DOT, Labor Relations and DCAS to resolve these issues and make all these members whole,” DeMarco said.