Grievance settlement wins gains for Ecology employees

- by Paul Pickett

Thanks to an innovative settlement between union members and Ecology management, employees have now gained a significant new benefit. As Ecology Human Resources staff in 2011 review all of the agency’s positions for their overtime designation, employees will have an improved process that provides transparency and an opportunity for input.

The story begins over a year ago, when Water Resources Program staff received notice that Ecology had changed their overtime status from Overtime Exempt to Overtime Eligible. Many of the staff were concerned because they had no input into the process and their supervisors weren’t asked about the change. When they reviewed their files, and there was no documentation about how their position was reviewed other than a cursory checklist. On the checklist it appeared that they had been changed from Exempt to Eligible solely because they did not have a college degree.

Five employees from ERO, CRO, and HQ put their names on the line to protest this action through a grievance. Their complaint cited the violation of 5 contract provisions, including compliance with state and federal law, impacts on promotion and layoff options, proper notification procedures, and discrimination.

The situation raised some interesting issues in the union context. Typically, unions want employees to be overtime eligible so they can earn overtime pay, and federal labor law reflects this. However, at Ecology many employees appreciate the flexible schedule offered by being overtime exempt. Usually overtime eligible employees find themselves saddled with strict time keeping and reporting requirements. In addition, in the current budget crunch employees don’t expect management to approve any overtime pay.

After discussion among the grievants, stewards, and WFSE staff it was clear that this grievance was in principle about transparency and substantive process. Employees should know how a decision was made and have input so the decision is based on good information. This is relevant whether they prefer being overtime eligible or exempt.

On top of this was the concern that the use of an employee’s degree was arbitrary, since many jobs in Ecology have similar duties performed both by employees with degrees and by employees who have learned their profession on the job. Employees without degrees were concerned about the implications for promotion and layoff, and about the appearance that management was abandoning a career path for non-degreed staff into technical professional positions.

Management’s initial settlement offer was weak, and the grievants wanted more, both for themselves and for all employees. Thanks to the hard work of Susanna Fenner, WFSE Council Representative, tough negations followed and after many weeks of back and forth a settlement began to take shape. A final agreement was reached in early March.

What did the grievants and WFSE staff win?

• Grievants will have 14 days to submit additional written documentation for their decision.
• During 2011, all employees will get notice that a review has occurred and whether they are overtime exempt or eligible. They will have 7 working days to provide more information, and if they do, HR will review the information and inform the employee of the outcome.
• Management confirmed that promotion and layoff options will be determined by positions requirements, not by overtime designation.

This is an entirely new process not previously in the contract. Unfortunately we were only able to secure this process temporarily. However, this adds a benefit for the current process that will affect all employees. Employees still retain the right to grieve their overtime designation in the future if they believe the contract was violated. And we can try to get it included in the next contract for all Washington general government employees.