Retroactive Pay and Fairness
(from the New Action leaflet distributed at the October 2015 UFT Delegate Assembly)
In a disheartening turn, after unusually harsh commentary by a teacher who is employed by the union,
the Unity leadership, followed by its caucus, voted en bloc against letting the delegates debate the issue.
For a printable version click: Leaflet 2015 October
Many members are happy to find the first lump sum payment from the 2014 contract in our checks. There are a flurry of questions – as is expected. When money is involved, we want to get it right.
The contract left out some groups of UFTers. People who have been discontinued are not entitled to the pay. Nor are people who resigned. Nor are people who left before age 55, waiting to retire when they turned 55. And people who died in service – their survivors are not entitled to the money they should have earned from 2009 – 2011. There is, unfortunately, nothing we can do to correct this unfairness.
But we can help another group. UFTers on maternity leave are not receiving the money due them this week. The City intends to pay them next round, in October 2017. There is a proposed resolution to get our folks the money they are due now. We urge you to vote to put this resolution on the agenda.
2 Comments
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Maxine
Well, in addition to those comments about not receiving any lump sum, I am enjoying a round of not receiving my pay checks on time, since September.
September 9th, when we were called back to work, our first pay date ran through September 30th. The memos were not seen by any school member. I needed an emergency check which had to last until October 30th, and now November 13th check is missing. The school secretary receive codes and hums, wow what is this, ooh, can you believe this, now, what you should do is hum, ooh, now it’s hard to figure out. Maybe you should call your last school, or go down to the pay roll office at you know where. However, a voice message service has put it short and brief, {We are not available to take your calls at this time, the volume is such that you can not leave a messages because the box is full, Thank you and have a good day.} Meanwhile, what are the procurement procedures doing out of place for substitute paraprofessionals whose representatives are none.
Maxine
This might seem selfish of me, but when your sweat equity doesn’t account for much until you have been offered a permanent position. It stands to reason that one can feel denied, left out, suspect that a collection of years worked as a PPT, Sub teacher, and sub paraprofessional did not get into the bargaining process to receive the lump sum. Especially,for those who have been on the roll, been nominated, processed with BA degrees, 75 hours of Professional Development course work, Masters in Special Education, DASA, finger printed, Prevention of Violence, all arrows pointing to the intent of being hired. The UFT did not recognize that the employment opportunities are seemingly on the blind side of our career goals, family importance and sweat equity.