Public Employee Press

Union negotiates raises for Job Opportunity Specialists

Local 371 and the Human Resources Administration reached a salary settlement for Job Opportunity Specialists and Associate JOS in November, shortly before the longstanding salary dispute would have gone to arbitration.

With the support of DC 37, Social Service Employees Union Local 371 hammered out an agreement for the salaries of about 2,400 JOS and AJOS. The pact provides pay hikes for workers ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. Many workers will also receive several thousand dollars in back pay.

“These were certainly rough, rough negotiations, which involved mediation,” Local 371 President Charles Ensley said at the DC 37 Delegates Council meeting in November. “We got these workers a fair settlement, though we didn’t geteverything we were looking for.”

The Giuliani administration created the JOS title series in 2000 as it implemented welfare reforms. Most of the positions were filled by HRA clerical and social service workers from locals 371 and 1549, who continued to receive their previous salaries (adjusted by the raises in citywide economic contracts). In 2005, Local 371 won an election to represent the workers.

The local pressed HRA for new salaries in negotiations that became very contentious and wound up in mediation.

The effective date of the agreement is Nov. 4, 2007, and the salary increase is retroactive to April 27, 2005. The agreement will run until March 2, 2008, whenDC 37’s current economic agreement expires. After March 2, the annual salary increases of the JOS and AJOS workers will follow the raises in the next economic agreement.

The agreement establishes incumbent rates of $38,000 for JOS, $46,500 for AJOS 1, $54,500 for AJOS 2 and $60,063 for AJOS 3.

The JOS-AJOS titles are part of the social services bargaining unit, which has longevity increases of $758 after a year, $1,515 after three years, $2,272 after five years and $3,182 after 7½ years. The JOS and AJOS workers will be entitled to Local 371’s recurring annuity of $478, though payments won’t be retroactive.

The city anticipates implementing the salary agreement in February.