Public Employee Press

Pay grievances yield $20,000 for four Local 372 members

Substance Abuse Prevention and Intervention Specialists (SAPIS) work with thousands of New York City students from elementary school through high school, providing them with vital information on the dangers of drugs and the dead end of addiction.

Carmen I. Rosario, Aura E. Espaillat, Dulce Marty and Noel Velez are all SAPIS Level 1 workers in Manhattan schools and members of Board of Education Employees Local 372. The four workers were acknowledged for excellent work at their schools and were promoted to SAPIS Level 2 in April 2007.

However, their paychecks never reflected the promotions.

The members approached DC 37 Schools Division Rep Russell Johnson during a union meeting and asked for assistance. Johnson proceeded to set up a labor-management meeting that failed to resolve the issue, so he filed a grievance on their behalf.

During Step 1 of the grievance procedure the union alleged that the Dept. of Education had violated three articles of the collective bargaining agreement pertaining to rates of pay, promotion procedures and complaint and grievance procedures.

Finally, at Step 3 of the procedure, the DOE decided that it would abide by the contract, and on Jan. 14 management agreed to pay the four members the $5,000 difference between Level 1 and Level 2 pay for the period from April 2007 to the present, with interest.

“The grievance procedure works,” said Johnson of the union’s victory. “The collective bargaining agreement is a living, breathing document and when it’s abrogated we have to fight to defend it.”