Public Employee Press

Grievances pay off for members at HHC

Grievance victories at two hospitals under-scored the importance of the union in protecting workers at the Health and Hospitals Corp.

Staten Island’s Sea View Rehabilitation Center was home to Clerical Associate Rajinser Sharama for 23 years. As he planned for his imminent retirement, Sharama wrote to management requesting information on his accumulated annual leave and sick time.

Shortly after that, he got sick and took six days off to recover. Management jumped to the conclusion that he wasn’t actually sick, denied his request for sick time and brought him up on charges for excessive use of overtime. At that point, Sharama had between 300 and 400 hours of sick time accrued.

Clerical Division Grievance Rep Dottie Lorenzo pointed out that, “For 23 years, he’s had no counseling, no warnings, and has never been late for work.” Fast forward: The iron-fisted management style backfired: As a result of Sharama’s grievance, he was awarded payment for the full six days in a stipulated agreement between Local 1549 and the HHC.

Local 1549 member Russell Thomas cooperated with management three years ago and moved from the Renaissance Hospital Center to a job at Harlem Hospital’s Management Information Systems department. Management promised that he would be upgraded to the correct title for the work he actually did at both worksites — monitoring the computer systems and keeping everything up and
running.

But after two years with no upgrade and no financial compensation, his patience ran out. Thomas finally listened to the counsel offered by Dottie Lorenzo, his union rep, and filed an out-of-title grievance. In November, a union-management agreement awarded him the difference in pay between the Clerical Associate IV and Computer Associate.

“Dottie was tenacious on my behalf,” said Thomas. Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez noted, “It’s just like the AFSCME motto: ‘When we fight, we win!’ ”