Yvonne Davis, Director
Essex County Division of Welfare
18 Rector Street, Floor 9
Newark, NJ, 07102
Re: Step II Class Action Contractual Grievance
Disastrously Dysfunctional Food Stamp Case Banking
Article I. Purpose
Article VII. Discipline
Article XXV. Non-Discrimination
Article XXX. Work Distribution & Practices
Article XLIX. Safety of Staff
Dear Ms. Davis:
CWA Local 1081 submits this Step II Class Action Contractual Grievance on behalf of all of members assigned to the Food Stamp Citizen Services Center to protest their being obliged to take part in a dysfunctional Case Banking scheme managerially foisted upon them to their detriment and to the detriment of the clients they so stridently strive to superiorly service. ASFS Robert DeMarino did not respond to our Union's attached Step I Class Action Contractual Grievance of May 8, 2013:
Clients' cases are not being processed in a timely fashion and you never memorialized the Case Banking process for our Union and its members as you promised you would.
Clients are compelled to wait in long lines outside and withstand the elements to merely gain entrance to the County-owned 50 South Clinton Street, East Orange building.
The appointment letters mailed the clients have no specific Family Service Workers (FSW's) designated whom they should contact upon arriving at the office.
Clients are allowed to enter the building with, and without, appointments letters and employees are administratively obligated to see them all thus resulting in the clients with appointments having to wait hours to be seen.
Clerks within the reception area have been denied the responsive responsibility of reviewing the clients' status before they are seen by FSW's, thus precipitating unnecessary waiting times for the clients and excessive duties for the FSW's.
Clients often don't possess the requisite documentation to present to their FSW's, thus resulting in longer waits for the clients to ultimately receive their benefits and frustration for the clients and employees alike.
FSW's often have to cease interviewing clients at the end of the employee's work day due to the sheer volume of clients to be interviewed, thus forcing those clients to have to come back to the office and further delaying their receipt of benefits.
The resolution CWA Local 1081 demands anew to this grievance consists of the following:
The County shall cease its imposition of the disastrously dysfunctional Case Banking system upon our members and their clients alike.
The County shall meet with our Union to review and discuss this deleterious development known as Case Banking.
The County shall cease treating our members and their clients as mere chattel and instead afford them all the respect as human beings they so richly deserve.
We seek a hearing in this regard.
Sincerely,
David H. Weiner, President
CWA Local 1081