Public Employee Press

Union wins $240,000 in back pay for 17 Local 375 members at HPD

An arbitrator ordered the Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development to pay 17 Local 375 members a total of $240,000 in back pay to compensate them for out-of-title work.

The Feb. 19 ruling dates from a long-simmering dispute over the department’s ongoing practice of assigning Construction Project Managers to take on work responsibilities beyond the duties required of their job titles.

“We are happy that justice prevailed in this case,” said Local 375 President Claude Fort. “This ruling should send a signal that Local 375 will do everything in its power to ensure that our members are properly paid when they are assigned to take on the tasks of more highly compensatedtitles.”

The arbitration resulted from a group grievance filed in October 2005.

Local 375 Executive Chair George Lawrence, who works as a grievance representative for the local, started to build evidence for the case after members indicated they were fed up with the department’s practice of saving money by having Construction Project Managers Level 1 and Level 2 take on CPM Level 3 responsibilities.

At HPD, Construction Project Managers are involved in city building rehabilitation projects. What generally distinguishes CPM Level 3 workers from those with Level 1 and Level 2 titles is that they work on multiple projects without direct supervision.

“I found that most of these people were doing a cluster of buildings within a one- or two-block range with the same contractor,” Lawrence said. “All of them were basically working independently.”

“It was nice to see that the members have received the pay they deserve,” said Steven Sykes, a DC 37 lawyer who handled the arbitration. “They all did a very good job in helping us collect the information we needed to argue our position forcefully before the arbitrator.”

Members have received back-pay awards ranging from a few thousand dollars to as much as $30,000, depending upon their working circumstances and salary. The lion’s share of grievants were CPM Level 2 workers who were being paid about $10,000 less because the department wasn’t paying them a Level 3 salary, according to Lawrence.

“I was very happy with the procedure, although it dragged on a bit too long,” said Gary Corneto, who testified at the arbitration hearing. A positive result of the ruling, Corneto said, is that additional members have come forward to fight the out-of-title practice. Local 375 has filed another group grievance to challenge the department’s assignment of members to out-of-title work.

“With more members coming out of the woodwork, our local is only becoming more committed to seeing that the department compensate its employees fairly,” Fort said. “We’re not backing down.”