Public Employee Press

Union gets her job back and $38,000

Grievance Victories

Local 372 member Nanette Sepulveda was recently awarded $38,000 in back pay through a union grievance against her improper transfer from a high school to a shelter.

DC 37 Schools Division Grievance Rep Brenda Jimenez filed the Family Associate's grievance against the Dept. of Education in 2011, charging that the wrongful transfer by the administrator of EBC High School in Brooklyn violated the collective bargaining agreement.

In the process of being transferred to the shelter, Sepulveda had her 15 years of seniority at the DOE eliminated. In addition to the back pay, the award restored her seniority.

The grievance sought to have Sepulveda returned to a high school or to have the move to the shelter considered an administrative transfer that would keep her years of seniority at the DOE intact.

The union took the case to step 2 of the grievance procedure and then to an arbitration panel, which held a hearing in October 2012 and agreed with Sepulveda and the union. The DOE was ordered to reinstate Sepulveda to her original title within 30 days after the settlement agreement was executed. She was credited with working in the high school for the three years that she worked in the shelter and received back pay for the time she had been laid off at the shelter.

"I was not about to let them take away all those years of seniority," said Sepulveda, who returned to work in November 2012 at Sheepshead Bay High School in Brooklyn. "And with the help of Brenda and Erica Gray-Nelson, the DC 37 attorney, we made sure we won."

"When members know their rights we're in a much better position to fight management and win," said Jimenez.