DDC Engineers Get $535G Under Grievance Settlement; Receive Raises and Back Pay

Thirty city engineers will receive more than $500,000 in combined back pay as the result of two grievances brought on their behalf by the Civil Service Technical Guild against the Department of Design and Construction.

CLAUDE FORT: Long fight ends happily.

The first settled grievance affects 13 Tech Guild members who are classified as Construction Program Managers, Level III. Each will receive a pay bump of 10 percent, retroactive to May 2005, from the job's present minimum salary, which raises their wages from $64,602 to $71,062 and delivers back pay of about $19,000 to each member.

The second settlement will affect 17 members classified as Civil Engineers, Level I, who will receive 4 percent above the minimum salary for a CE Level II, also retroactive to May 2005. This amounts to a salary increase of about $5,564 for each member, with each employee also receiving back pay of $16,692.

'They Were Undercompensated'

Tech Guild President Claude Fort, whose union is Local 375 of District Council 37, estimated that in total his members would be delivered around $535,000 in back pay. "Although this grievance took three years to settle, I am very pleased that both sides were able to sit down and recognize that these members were under-compensated and something had to be done about it," he said in an interview. "When you have a qualified workforce, you've got to keep it, and you've got to make sure they are paid the right salary."

Mr. Fort said that the grievance was originally filed because the Engineers were working on projects far more complex than their job titles allowed for, entitling them to a pay raise. "They were working on multi-million-dollar projects," he said.

With their differences resolved, Mr. Fort heaped praise on agency head David J. Burney. "DDC has a great Commissioner who brings a very high level of professionalism and commitment to excellence to the agency," he said. "And you have highly qualified and skilled employees, who bring a lot of experience to the workplace and are as committed as the Commissioner to deliver quality services to the City of New York."

Mr. Fort credited DC 37 attorney Steven Sykes and Local 375 First Vice President Jon Forster and 2nd Vice President Michelle Keller for their work on the grievances.

Mr. Fort also cited Mayor Bloomberg's call last month for a raise in the salaries of transit engineers, saying more needed to be done. "In that respect Mayor Bloomberg was right ... but it's not just the transit engineers, but the engineers working in the mayoral agencies, and I hope the Mayor will take the lead in making the proper adjustment to their salaries," he said.