Sizable Salary Upgrades For 2,400 at HRA; Job Opportunity Specialist Settlement Covers Back Wages

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

More than 2,400 Human Resources Administration employees will receive thousands of dollars in back-pay and see their salaries jump from $2,000 to $7,000 this year after Social Services Employees Union Local 371 of District Council 37 settled a dispute that began seven years ago.

A REASONABLE COMPROMISE: 'We didn't walk away from the table with all that we wanted,' Local 371 President Charles Ensley said of the settlement under which his members in the Job Opportunity Specialist title series will get raises of up to $7,000. 'But it represented a tremendous amount of money for a lot of members.'

Current Job Opportunity Specialists will make $38,000 and Associate Job Opportunity Specialists will be paid between $46,500 and $60,063, depending upon their level. Both titles will receive back-pay retroactive to April 2005, when Local 371 won representation rights for the workers in a three-way election. A small number of AJOS workers were already making close to or above the new pay level. Their pay will not be cut if they were making more than the upgraded salary.

'Had Facts on Our Side'

"We were confident from the beginning that the facts were on our side," said Local 371 President Charles Ensley. "Arbitration hearings were to start at the end of November, and suddenly they wanted to meet."

The titles were created in 2000 by combining other positions as part of former Mayor Giuliani's sweeping welfare reform. Although the duties expanded and included some social work responsibilities, the administration set the salaries at a clerical level.

JOS workers will receive an increase of 5.8 percent, and the majority of supervisory workers will earn an additional 9.3 to 14.2 percent annually. New hires' rates will be lower than for incumbents, at $32,338 for the JOS position and between $40,435 and $52,229 for AJOS employees. Incumbent rates kick in after two years.

"We didn't walk away from the table with all that we wanted," said Mr. Ensley. "But it represented a tremendous amount of money for a lot of members. We have always felt that it is better to negotiate than to submit to arbitration."

Were Forced Into Titles

The titles were created in December 2000, and the conflict became heated in May 2001 when Eligibility Specialists, Caseworkers, Supervisors and Principal Administrative Associates were pressured into the new positions after supervisors told them they would be re-located if they did not change titles. At that time, those workers were represented by three different unions - Local 371, Local 1549 of District Council 37 and Local 1180 of the Communication Workers of America. The city agreed to keep all employees at the same salaries and benefits and allow those unions to continue representing the workers until jurisdiction was determined by the Office of Collective Bargaining.

The change in titles was part of Mr. Giuliani's "welfare-to-work" overhaul that sought to transform benefit entitlement centers into job placement sites. The new positions required that outside hires had a bachelor's degree. They also involved responsibilities usually performed by Caseworkers, such as job counseling and access to social services.

HRA set the wages for new hires at the clerical level. As a result, and because the incumbent workers kept their old salaries, employees sitting next to each other performing the same duties were earning vastly different paychecks. "Salaries are a mandatory subject of bargaining," said Mr. Ensley. "They can't just decide how much they're going to pay people. We believe in equal pay for equal work."

Won 2 Separate Votes

The hearings to determine representation rights began at OCB in 2002. In January 2005, the agency ruled that it couldn't decide the issue and ordered an election between Locals 1549 and 371 for JOS workers and Locals 371 and 1180 for AJOS workers.

More than 70 percent of the eligible workers in the lower title cast ballots, and 552 JOS workers voted for Local 371 and 528 for Local 1549. Before the election, Local 1549 represented approximately 900 workers and Local 371 represented 166. About 400 other workers had been hired after the title was created and had no representation. In the AJOS election, Local 371 received 424 votes and Local 1180 got 262 votes.

The new deal also includes Local 371 longevity differentials at one, three, five and 7-1/2 years, prospectively. All of the workers will also be entitled to Local 371 annuity payments, which are now at $478 per year.

Mr. Ensley said that HRA Commissioner Robert Doar had been crucial in reaching the agreement. "In my 27 years as union president," he said. "I have never gone to arbitration to resolve an issue of salary. I've always believed that when there is proper professionalism on both sides of table, you can reach a settlement."