Violates DC 37 Contract
Ticket Parks For Illegal Discipline
By MEREDITH KOLODNER

The Board of Collective Bargaining has ruled that the Parks Department violated the law when it set up a disciplinary procedure outside of the contract without first negotiating it with District Council 37.

The BCB has ordered the agency to stop referring employees to the Mediation Center of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings until it sits down with the union to bargain over the use of the center's services.

Meeting Was Scrapped

The union filed an improper practice charge in November of 2005 after it discovered that Parks employees were being sent to the center without its knowledge.

Before the employees were referred, the Parks Equal Opportunity Officer, Ricardo Granderson, reached out to DC 37 Blue Collar Division Director Jose Sierra to discuss having employees participate in the mediation program. That phone conversation took place on July 6, 2005, and the two men set up a meeting for Sept. 12 to discuss the program. The meeting, however, was cancelled and never took place.

Mr. Granderson nonetheless followed up the July 6 conversation with a letter in which he referred to the mediation as "an alternative to rigid discipline." That phrase is what sunk the city's claim that it had not subverted the contract.

On Aug. 23, a DC 37 member called the union to ask for a union rep to accompany him to a meeting being held at the Mediation Center. When the rep arrived at the center, she discovered several employees who had been called in for the mediation session.

'Obligated to Bargain'

The union and the city disagreed over how the employees ended up at the meeting. Union officials contended that the employees did not know why they had been asked to attend, while the city claimed that the session was voluntary and was meant to resolve an EEO dispute at the members' workplace.

But the BCB ruled that it was irrelevant whether the employees went to the session voluntarily or what the city's intent was in setting it up. The decision stated, "[T]he City cannot evade its bargaining obligation by allowing an agency to implement an alternative disciplinary procedure, even if the alternative procedure is wholly voluntary and well-intentioned."

The Board also did not accept the city's argument that the session was for counseling, nor its assertion that because the session was confidential, no Parks management could learn of its content and therefore use it for discipline.

Instead, the ruling cited Mr. Granderson's letter describing the mediation as "an alternative" to discipline and noted that it was an improper practice for an agency to refuse to negotiate on issues, such as discipline, that were within the scope of collective bargaining. The ruling stated, "We have long held that, while it is an employer's prerogative to take disciplinary action, the procedures necessary for the administration of discipline are mandatorily negotiable."

The agency has been ordered to post a notice letting employees know about the ruling at all its workplaces, which mandates that the Parks officials stop using the alternative dispute resolution program instead of the discipline procedure until they negotiate an agreement with the union.