Public Employee Press

Arbitration leads to 28 Investigator promotions

A grievance filed by the union resulted in 28 current and former Investigators at the Civilian Complaint Review Board getting back pay and promotions as part of a stipulation of settlement prepared by DC 37 Assistant General Counsel Steven Sykes.

The May 22 stipulation followed an out-of-title group grievance filed in 2006 by DC 37 and Local 1113 on behalf of Level 1 Investigators.

“For a long while there were not a lot of Level 2 Investigators at the CCRB,” said Deborah Pitts, the local president. “By the time the grievance was settled in May, all Level 1 Investigators who remained on the job had been promoted to the Level 2 title.”

A high turnover rate at the CCRB leaves few experienced Investigators to probe complex investigations that protect civilians from abuses of power by the police and other uniformed law enforcement agents. Pressure from the union helped get members who remained on the job the pay and promotions they deserved.

While the settlement for the local members involved ranged from $250 to thousands of dollars for each person, Sheila Donovan, now a Level 2 Investigator said, “Better yet: There are three times more Level 2 Investigators at the agency than when the grievance was filed.”

The winning outcome “means that people are assigned work that is more appropriate to their title and are being paid for the work they are doing rather than doing work above their pay grade,” she said.

“This is an important victory for the local because the members had been doing the work of Level 2 Investigators without being compensated for it,” said Sykes. “As a result of the grievance we filed, we were able to convince the agency to pay these employees what they deserved.”

“We went through a long-drawn-out fight,” Pitts said. The union prevailed despite agency managers waging an ongoing campaign of retaliation against at least two local members who had filed improper practice grievances back in 2006. In that case the Office of Collective Bargaining issued a 40-page decision in favor ofDC 37 that directed the CCRB to “cease and desist from retaliating” against the Investigators and ordered re-evaluations of the grievants’ job performances “in good faith and without regard to their protected union activity.”

“I feel this is a really good way ofenforcing the rules and standards the agency should have been abiding by,” Donovan said. “Myself and co-workers are happy about the outcome. It has been good for relations between staff and management and has created a better work environment.”

“Always feel you should be compensated for the work you do, no matter how small the task,” advised Pitts. “If you’re asked to do a task that is not in your job specs, you should consult with union representatives to see if you can be compensated for it. It’s about having a sense of pride, and knowing that your union is always working for you.”