April 21, 2016
Jeanette Page-Hawkins, Director
Division of Family Assistance and Benefits-Formerly Division of Welfare
County of Essex
18 Rector Street, Floor 9
Newark, NJ, 07102
Re: Step II Class Action Contractual Grievance
Failure to Post Administrative Clerk/Bilingual Position, Et Al
Article 1. Purpose
Article VII. Non-Discrimination
Article V. Seniority and Job Vacancies
Dear Ms. Page-Hawkins:
CWA Local 1081 submits this Step II Class Action Contractual Grievance on behalf of our Union's members eligible to assume the Administrative Clerk/Bilingual position to protest the County having furtively rehired, and appointed, a former Keyboarding Clerk 1 (KC 1) to that position without having mandatorily posted the position throughout the agency or informed our Union of the vacancy as well as the filling of the position.
The attached Article V. Seniority and Job Vacancies of our Union’s contract with the County of Essex stipulates that “Job vacancies above the entry level position for a unit shall be posted for five (5) days prior to the filling of the position. The Union shall be notified of the vacancy as well as the filling of the position.”
While CWA Local 1081 does not necessarily proffer any criticisms of the qualifications of the above cited former Keyboarding Clerk 1 whom was recently rehired after an approximate one-year break in service and then appointed to the Administrative Clerk/Bilingual position, our Union must, and shall, seek strenuously to have enforced the abovementioned applicable articles of our contract with the County of Essex. Please note the attached New Jersey Job Civil Service Specification for the position of Administrative Clerk/Bilingual 05326. Having had such a relatively lengthy break in service from her employ with the Division of Family Assistance and Benefits-Formerly Division of Welfare as a KC 1, the person appointed to the Administrative Clerk/Bilingual position is less senior than most, if not all, of the KC 1’S, KC 2”s and KC 3’s currently employed by the agency.
As
the resolution to this grievance, CWA Local 1081 demands the following:
1. The County shall immediately post the Administrative Clerk/Bilingual job vacancy, throughout the entirety of the agency, while providing our Union a copy of same so as to afford all eligible agency employees their contractual and statutory rights to apply for consideration for a provisional appointment to the position.
2. The County shall then immediately provisionally appoint to the position of Administrative Clerk/Bilingual a qualified applicant with the most seniority.
3. The County shall immediately call for a Civil Service test for the Administrative Clerk/Bilingual title and post the scheduled test announcement within a timely manner throughout the entirety of the agency while providing our Union a copy of said announcement.
4. The County shall notify CWA Local 1081 of the filling of the Administrative Clerk/Bilingual position, once it’s been effectuated by a selection of an applicant from the Civil Service certification list which would have been promulgated from the test for the position which would have previously been given and graded by the Commission.
Please note the attached documents denoting CWA Local 1081 having had formally filed for arbitration (which remains pending a hearing) the County’s having furtively promoted one Keyboarding Clerk 2 to the position of Supervising Data Control Clerk, also without having mandatorily posted the position throughout the agency or informed our Union of the vacancy as well as the filling of the position.
We seek a hearing in this regard.
Sincerely,
David H. Weiner, President
CWA Local 1081