March 27, 2014
Lucia Guarini, Director
Essex County Department of Citizen Services
18 Rector Street, Floor 9
Newark, NJ, 07102
Re: Step III Class Action Contractual Grievance
Improper Denial of Overtime to CWA Local 1081 Members
Article I. Purpose
Article V. Seniority & Job Vacancies
Article VII. Discipline
Article XXV. Non-Discrimination
Article XXXIX. Safety of Staff
Dear Ms. Guarini:
CWA Local 1081 submits this Step III Class Action Contractual Grievance on behalf of our Union's Clerical members assigned to the Downtown Citizen Services Center to protest the fact that Clerk 4 Ruth Prager is alleged to have failed to have notified all of the Clerks of the availability of overtime.
ASFS David Gawenus' attached Step I Class Action Contractual Grievance denial rejoinder of February 24, 2014 is unacceptable to CWA Local 1081 and our Union's adversely affected members. While Mr. Gawenus alleges "The entire clerical staff was notified of the overtime opportunity via a memo authorized by Ruth Prager, Clerk 4 and approved by myself", he fails to "provide our Union a copy the list(s) containing the names and titles of all of the Clerical members of the Downtown office to whom" he's awarded overtime, since January 2013 to present, and for what amounts of respective remuneration and nor did he "provide our Union a copy of the seniority list(s) for Clerks" he has within his possession who are assigned to the Downtown office.
Mr. Gawenus' non sequitur statement to our Union of "Consider your source" is at once as baffling as it is a far from a brilliant bombastic bombardment against our Union's source(s) regarding our grounds for having filed this grievance.
Division of Welfare Director Sharon Butler did not respond to our Union's attached Step II Class Action Contractual Grievance of March 6, 2014.
The attached Article V. Seniority & Job Vacancies of CWA Local 1081's contract with the County of Essex stipulates, "It is agreed that overtime work shall be shared by all employees in an occupational classification within any work unit without discrimination. The opportunity to work overtime shall be extended to each employee on a rotational basis by seniority provided he/she is capable of performing the work."
The resolution CWA Local 1081 respectfully re-reiterates to this grievance consists of the following:
- The County shall immediately provide our Union a copy the list(s) containing the names and titles of all of the Clerical members of the Downtown office to whom Mr. Gawenus awarded overtime, since January 2013 to present, and for what amounts of respective remuneration.
- The County shall immediately provide our Union a copy of the seniority list(s) for Clerks Mr. Gawenus has within his possession who are assigned to the Downtown office.
- Were Mr. Gawenus' management team to have purposely refrained from offering overtime to any Clerks contractually eligible to have been offered it, the County shall immediately provide our Union his purported reason(s) for having done so.
Were you the County to decline to provide our Union the documents we've requested within #1 and #2 above, CWA Local 1081 shall be compelled to resort to utilizing the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) to obtain that memorialized information we seek.
We seek a hearing in this regard.
Sincerely,
David H. Weiner, President
CWA Local 1081