Public Employee Press

School worker gets laundry money

As a School Lunch Assistant at East New York Technical High School in Brooklyn, Simone Edwards Murray gets her uniform a bit soiled at times.

But that’s not a problem for her. As a member of Board of Education Employees Local 372, she is entitled under the union’s collective bargaining agreement to be reimbursed for her laundry expenses.

After she put in to be reimbursed in 2005, the BOE’s Office of School Food and Nutrition Services assured her that her check was in the mail.

“They told me it would be paid promptly. I even took maternity leave, and when I came back they still hadn’t reimbursed me,” said Murray, who is also a shop steward for Local 372.

She eventually lost her patience with OSFNS and filed a grievance with the help of DC 37 Schools Division Grievance Rep Patricia Orr.

It took a while, but OSFNS finally reimbursed her in June for the $70.26 that she was owed for 2005, 2006 and 2007.

“It’s not the amount that counts. It’s the principle,” said Schools Division Director Marva Lewis-Bradford. “Our members are due this benefit and the union will fight for what is rightfully theirs until they win.”