October 3, 2007
Bruce Nigro, Director
Essex County Division of Welfare
18 Rector Street , Floor 9
Newark , NJ , 07102
Step II Contractual Grievance
Utilizing FSW's as Clerk/Telephone Operators
Article I. Purpose
Article VII. Discipline
Article XXV. Non-Discrimination
Article XXI. Title Classifications
Dear Mr. Nigro:
CWA Local 1081 submits this Step II Class Action Contractual Grievance on behalf of our Family Service Worker members assigned to the Food Stamp Citizen Services Center to prospectively protest your purported plan to create a unit comprised of FSW's within that office whose supposed sole purpose shall be to answer clients' telephone calls and direct them to their respective assigned Family Service Workers:
Despite nearly daily contact with our Union , you failed to afford CWA Local 1081 sufficient respect to have at least discussed this preposterous proposal in advance of its intended imminent implementation.
Inasmuch as the Division of Welfare shall be undergoing significant staff changes with the effectuation of the AASFS, FSS and FSW New Jersey Department of Personnel (Civil Service) respective test lists, the tumult within the agency precipitated by the hiring of new FSW's and the transference of promoted AASFS's and FSS's will only be exacerbated by your ill-conceived concept.
[Click Here For] a copy of Job Specification 05592 from the New Jersey Department of Personnel which includes the Definition, Examples of Work, Requirements and Knowledge and Abilities of a Family Service Worker. Below that, please find a copy of Job Specification 07239 from the New Jersey Department of Personnel which includes the Definition, Examples of Work, Requirements and Knowledge and Abilities of a Clerk/Telephone Operator. Any rational individual with even a modicum of common sense would realize when comparing the two that your plan would not only squander the education, talent, training and experience of the affected Family Service Workers but that would it would also be fiscally irresponsible by paying FSW's to do the honest, needed and respected job of a Clerk.
The resolution CWA Local 1081 demands to what should be a totally unnecessary and managerially preventable grievance consists of the following:
You shall arrange to meet with our Union as soon as possible in order to have you explain your plan as well as why you declined to discuss it in advance with CWA Local 1081, which is for the most part uncharacteristic of your past behavior toward our Union .
You shall halt all plans to implement your noxious notion, which is not only violative of the above cited articles of our contract but is also violative of the rules and regulations of the New Jersey Department of Personnel as well.
We most definitely seek a hearing, in this regard.
Sincerely,
David H. Weiner, President
CWA Local 1081
C: Anibal Ramos
Yvonne Davis
Lynn Buckley
Stephen Weissman, Esquire
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