Mayor Bloomberg Plans To Scrap Civil-Service Rights

Unions: Mayor's Reform Plan Threat to Civil Service

Mayor’s Bid to Uproot Civil-Service Rights Triggers Union Fury
Say ‘Reforms’ Are Threat To Merit System; Will Oppose in Albany

MAYOR BLOOMBERG: Must scrap ‘antiquated’ system.
HARRY NESPOLI: An act of disrespect.
STEVE CASSIDY: Mayor creating hostilities.
DENIS HUGHES: ‘Outrageous’ attack on merit.

Posted: Monday, January 10, 2011 5:00 pm
Updated: 1:38 pm, Mon Jan 10, 2011.

By DAVID SIMS, The Chief

Labor leaders Jan. 7 reacted angrily to a wide-ranging report on workforce practices from the Bloomberg administration that proposes to reduce the number of civil-service exams given each year, free the city from having to honor seniority rights in making layoffs, and re-classify many union members as managers, a broad rewriting of civil-service rules that would need approval by the Governor and State Legislature.

The unions’ ire stemmed from both the plan’s components and the lack of consultation or information provided by city officials until the report was verbally presented to the Municipal Labor Committee that morning. Union officials were offered no opportunity to examine it beforehand and were not given copies of the report at the meeting, even though its key details had already been published in the New York Times.

‘Not How to Deal With Us’

“It’s really not how you deal with unions,” MLC Chairman Harry Nespoli said in a phone interview. “I told them, ‘What do you expect to accomplish today?’ All they did was read out a bunch of stuff that affects some unions and doesn’t affect others...It was poorly put together, it was something I’ve never seen done between union and management, and it’s just a guerrilla tactic.”

Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy said he was “disgusted” the city had not given union heads the report prior to the briefing. “It seems clear that the Bloomberg administration has decided that their new tack is to not discuss anything with us. This does not bode well for collaborative efforts in anything—and I mean anything.”

Asked about the lack of advance notice, Labor Commissioner James F. Hanley, who conducted the briefing, said only, “It’s a good time to be looking at our hiring and firing procedures. Hopefully we’ll be able to find some common ground.”

New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes said he was disturbed that Mr. Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith were seeking to do away with much of a system that has stood statewide since the 1880s and was designed to prevent favoritism in personnel practices. “I think in the scheme of things it’s a colossal mistake to change the fairness and the openness of the whole concept of public employment,” he said in a phone interview.

‘Reopens Door to Patronage’

“This system has helped establish the middle class of the City of New York, and it’s just outrageous that they want to open the door to the days of patronage,” he continued. “There may be parts in the civil-service law that should be looked at, but the idea of eliminating tests in general is outrageous.”

The report was the result of a Workforce Reform Task Force chaired by Martha Hirst, the former Commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. Several Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners from other city agencies along with some mayoral advisers served on the panel, which had no union representation.

“He convenes a puppet committee to do an inside job and get the results he wanted from the beginning,” United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said of the Mayor. “Emperor Mike wants complete control of everyone, in their jobs and their life. That’s how I read the report.”

Most of the panel’s 23 suggested reforms require state approval, as they would alter the Taylor Law and other civil-service statues. Some smaller changes can be enacted at a city level, which Mr. Bloomberg pledged to do immediately.

‘Civil Service Holding Us Back’

“We have the best workforce in the world, but the civil service is so antiquated that it prevents them from performing up to their abilities,” the Mayor said in a statement. “We have identified 23 concrete, achievable reforms that will help modernize the system and strengthen the whole purpose of civil-service reform: conducting hiring and promotion based on merit.”

The changes fall under three broad categories: governance, hiring flexibility and organizational excellence.

The governance reforms largely focus on the burden of the State Civil Service Commission, which the report says provides unnecessary and slow oversight. The city has sent five proposals to the SCSC for examination in the past 18 months but no action has been taken; the report thus recommends eliminating SCSC oversight entirely through amendment of the state civil-service law.

It would also empower New York City Transit and the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority to administer their own civil-service systems without the city having to devise tests for them.

Wants Many Tests Scrapped

The hiring-flexibility proposals look to move many titles out of the Competitive Class, including all senior management titles, making them non-competitive or exempt, outside of the civil-service exam system. Other titles should be broadbanded or consolidated to “reduce the unmanageable number of competitive examinations the city must administer.”

The amount of time temporary workers can stay on the job should be doubled from 18 months to three years, giving agencies more flexibility to hire staff for specific projects, the report also recommends.

The last set of changes focuses on management and highlights the number of Office of Collective Bargaining proceedings that have classified managerial employees as eligible for collective bargaining. Principals, Precinct Commanders, Assistant Commissioners and Deputy Fire Chiefs are among the titles cited that the report said should be classified as managerial.

It decried the conflicts of interest that it said arose from putting these employees in unions, and the high overtime costs that come with such employees working the long hours often necessary in their jobs. “The task force believes it is critical that the Taylor Law be amended to refine the legal presumption that public employees are eligible for collective bargaining, and to re-define the universe of employees who are deemed to be managerial,” the report stated.

Teachers Main Seniority Focus

These organizational changes also include reforms of the disciplinary process, which the task force says is too inflexible and slow-moving; and a repeal of the reverse-seniority layoff provision for Teachers. “Last-in, first out is a quality-blind approach that can force Principals to lay off excellent Teachers while retaining others who are less effective,” the report states.

All other agencies should be able to organize employees into specific “groups,” allowing them to downsize, based on seniority, in specific business areas rather than across the whole agency, preventing epidemics of “bumping,” the report also advises.

“In the late 19th century, it was recognized that for people to have access to these jobs, they shouldn’t have to have political connections, shouldn’t have to know someone; they had to be competent and they had to pass the test,” Mr. Hughes said of the current system of exams.

“That system has held from 1883 to the present, because it dealt with the basic issue of fairness, of openness, way ahead of its time,” he continued. “The result of these kinds of things is to put working men and women further down on the chain and increase the gap between those who have the most and those who have the least.”

Union leaders said they were discouraged by the entire process. “If the changes are for the better, we’re willing to sit down and talk. If it’s something that destroys what civil service is in place for, then we’re going to battle them,” Mr. Nespoli said, having still not seen the report. “All the union members were very angry over this; they felt slighted, and so did I.”

“If you really want to work with people in tough times, then you have to sit down and work with them,” Mr. Mulgrew said. “They convened a secret puppet committee with no input from anyone except management, and then they asked us for cooperation. You can guess their mood from there.”

Asked about the chances of the changes gaining legislative approval, Mr. Cassidy said, “If they had worked with us, they could have found common ground with us on some things.” Instead, he continued, the administration will be dealing with “a roomful of labor leaders who will do everything in their power to stop this."

Labor Leaders Angry Over Proposed Civil Service Changes
CBS News, January 7, 2011 9:50 PM
LINK

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — City union leaders are up in arms over Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign to change the state’s century-old civil service system.

A task force appointed by Bloomberg concluded that civil service examinations should not be required in the hiring of senior managers and IT specialists, saying the tests precluded the flexibility to hire the best people for the job.

In addition, the task force recommended changes to seniority rules, which some labor leaders charged would make it easier to hire and fire.

Harry Nespoli, chairman of the Municipal Labor Committee, called the proposed changes “very dangerous.”

“The system was set up to protect the worker and get a fair shake. And that’s what the civil service system does right now. The latest version of civil service reforms that they’re showing in the report destroys it,” he told 1010 WINS’ Stan Brooks.

1010 WINS’ Stan Brooks reports

The current system has been in place for more than 120 years. Bloomberg would need the state legislature’s approval to change the law.

Nespoli said he believed that the changes would lead to favoritism in hiring and would encourage the city to lay off higher paid senior workers and keep lower paid newer workers.

"It’ll give them the ability to pick who they want to get the job or not,” Nespoli said. “That’s not why civil service was set up. It was based on merit.”

In NYC, Probationary Teachers Have No Right To Work, And Are Not represented fairly by the UFT

Dr. Priya Parmar is so accurate in her assessment of the UFT in her statement below that I think all teachers should read what she wrote. By the way, the UFT treats most tenured teachers the same way.

Betsy Combier
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter

CASE OF NEW YORK CITY TEACHER ABUSE
OF PROBATIONARY TEACHER
Written by Professor Priya Parmar, Brooklyn College – City University of New York School of Education

Teacher abuse is alive and well in this corrupt system run by the NYC Department of Education AND I would even venture to say the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). The motives of administration in placing hard-working, innocent veteran or tenured teachers in these “rubber rooms” range from personal (personality conflicts) vendettas to political feuds (violation of a teacher’s Academic Freedom). Most of the publicized stories are about tenured teachers placed unfairly and unjustly in these “detention centers.”

Now imagine the treatment UNTENURED or probationary teachers must endure by power-wielding administrators who are disciplined for simply expressing opinions, questioning policies or procedures that simply do not work, or even more egregious, for personality conflicts with members of the administration. The press MUST publicize these untold stories and hold the NYC Department of Education AND the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) accountable for their actions, or lack thereof. Many administrators, not all, have a ‘superiority-complex’ due to their positionality and experience (number of years) in the system. New teachers by virtue of their position as “inexperienced,” “young,” or “new” to the system are devalued and seen as easily dispensable if they go against the grain in ANY way. I am reminded by the poignant statement Senator Barack Obama made in one of his speeches when he asserted, “Longevity does not necessarily guarantee good judgment."

Inexperienced or probationary teachers who graduate from accredited teacher education programs bring passion, creativity, and innovative ideas that have the potential to transform oppressive working and teaching conditions to empowering educational experiences for students, parents, and teachers alike. Probationary or untenured teachers’ naivety comes from trusting an educational system that claims to want success for all of its students and trusting that they will receive adequate support from a union that requires ALL teachers, regardless of rank, to pay dues. They soon learn the hard way that regardless of degrees earned or union dues paid, they have very little power and voice under the tyranny of the NYC DOE. There is a culture of fear that permeates in NYC that new teachers learn quickly: if one conforms and has a “go-along-to-get-along” attitude, s/he will persevere and “earn” tenure. The following is a story from the 2007-08 school year that I am confident many probationary teachers can relate to in some way or another:

I am an assistant professor teaching in a School of Education in the City University of New York. I work with NYC teachers who are often subjected to deplorable working conditions and demeaning treatment by the iron-fisted tactics of their principals. Sadly, many report receiving very little support from their union (the United Federation of Teachers - UFT). I am currently witness to a yearlong battle between a first year, "probationary" high school social studies teacher and his principal in Brooklyn, NY.

We have STRONG evidence that suggests that due to dislikes against his personal character, among other minuscule reasons, beginning close after the day of his hire members of the administration have confabulated and colluded to "discontinue" his services, (or in other words, terminate his employment as a high school social studies teacher, which as I write this letter, they have succeeded – his case is currently under appeal). This piece of evidence I refer to is a scathing email I received from a formerly employed administrator from that school. This former employee (AP of English) received an email from a current English teacher who still works there but is at the principal’s beck and call. She shared her thoughts and CONVERSATIONS she had with the principal who blatantly discussed plans to “excess” (transfer) and “get rid” of this social studies teacher from her school. The writer of this email refers to this teacher as a “piece of shit” and explains how when she informed the principal that the English department has “boycotted” him, the principal simply “laughed” and stated, “He won’t be long here.” Shortly thereafter, this teacher has been subjected to harassing behavior from various members of his administration and unexpected observations that were written up as formal and rated as “U” ratings (Unsatisfactory).

Allow me to briefly explain the gross abuse and disregard of the union contract. According to the Collective Bargaining Agreement (contract), probationary teachers are: (1) Required to have pre- and post- observation conferences for formal, rated observations. Due to this teacher’s status as a probationer, he is required to have a minimum four to six observations throughout the school year: two full periods by the AP, one full period by the principal, and one full period by the AP or principal. He was only observed three times - two of those he was not afforded a pre-observation conference; rather, both were unexpected visits written up as formal observations and rated as “U’s”. ONE observation in which they actually adhered to the contract provided him a pre-observation conference and surprise, surprise, he was rated “S’ – Satisfactory - thus reaffirming the importance of providing pre-observation conferences to probationers, a right the UFT fought long and hard to include in the contract. In addition, the principal’s unexpected observation was written up as an “INFORMAL” yet it was rated as “U” and placed in this teacher’s end of year annual rating, which, of course, was a “U”.

(2) The annual rating of “U” and recommendation for “DISCONTINUANCE” did not provide information from his principal explaining how opportunities of professional development plans/workshops were provided to assist him in his growth in terms of pedagogy (i.e. - pre - and post observations, buddy teacher system, inter-visitation with colleagues, model lesson demonstrations). On his rating sheet, the category of classroom management or "control of class" was rated as "Unsatisfactory." However, this teacher attended three workshops for the "Classroom Organization and Management Program" and was given a certificate of successful completion stating he was a "COMPetent classroom manager" in March 2008. Additionally, the two COMP trainers observed his classroom on two different occasions and wrote positive evaluations.

(3) Moreover, this teacher was never made aware or even given a written warning from his principal that failure to improve may result in an "Unsatisfactory" rating or discontinuation of probationary service. Instead, he received verbal threats that she could easily get rid of him, statements easily corroborated by his union chapter leader in written letters.

(4) According to the Chancellor's Regulation on the mandate and timing of the annual rating (must be given within the last ten (10) days of the school year and not fewer than four (4) school days prior to the close thereof..) this teacher’s annual rating covered the period from 8/30/07 to 5/1/08 and delivered to him on May 12, 2008 – well in advance of the closing of the school year. He was actually served with a standard letter from the superintendent stating his services as a probationer may be discontinued as of June 10, 2008 BUT IF the teacher wished to submit evidence to refute the rating, he was welcomed to do so ten days prior to the June 10, 2008 decision. The teacher prepared a well-organized packet and hand-delivered it to the superintendent exactly ten days prior to June 10th with strong evidence countering allegations of insubordination and violations of the contractual policies (Article 8J for those New Yorkers who know the contract – no pre-observation conference provided). The DAY before the teacher hand delivered his packet to the superintendent, he received an email from his UFT borough representative stating that he spoke to the superintendent on the phone and the superintendent was steadfast on supporting the principal’s decision to discontinue his services! I was shocked that the decision was already informally made PRIOR to the teacher even submitting his rebuttal. Why bother even submit materials if the decision has already been determined?! So much for due process!

Other evidence of honoring “due process”: This teacher received a letter from his assistant principal instructing him to clear his classroom of all student work and submit student grades by June 10th – the letter was served at the end of MAY, prior to the June 10th decision! Even more astonishing, I made a few phone calls to the Division of Human Resources Office to inquire about the process of appeal and the secretary, in a straightforward yet polite tone, informed me that if a teacher received a letter of consideration to discontinue, services WILL be discontinued as this is standard procedure. Even staff is aware that this notion of “due process” is superficial and administration and UFT representatives simply go through the motions of serving letters, filing grievances, thus giving false hope to grievants, while all the time knowing that the likelihood of winning or overturning these recommendations are rare.

This teacher’s case has gone to the Chancellor’s level in which a representative from the Chancellor’s office hears the case. The UFT representative representing the teacher had a defeatist attitude before even presenting his case! She advised him to stay quiet throughout the hearing because the decision to discontinue him will not be overturned because the hidden message was that administrators tend to stick together regardless if the case has merit. During the course of these hearings, on two different occasions, the Chancellor’s representative asked the principal to consider a resolution that would not discontinue the teacher and the principal, both times, adamantly refused to grant a resolution, citing that since he made her work all year in preparing defenses for the grievances he filed, she was not going to back down. I even spoke to her for a half hour on the phone in the middle of the school year and she clearly had an axe to grind with this teacher telling me he was the first teacher to file a grievance against her and since she was planning to retire in the next year, she had virtually nothing to lose in teaching him a lesson.

Most of the UFT representatives this teacher has reached out to, with the exception of ONE, have defeatist attitudes when dealing with members of the DOE. His chapter leader is "overwhelmed" and gives the "I'm so sorry you're going through this" advice/guidance. This first year teacher and I are so well versed on the Collective Bargaining Agreement that we have resorted to writing our own grievances while he passes it along to his chapter leader to officially file! The district representative is useless as well. He is selective and laconic in how he responds to any inquiries this teacher makes in emails (he consistently misspells his last name – so much for personal care and interest), fails to return most phone calls, and worst of all, is spineless when dealing with administrators. I believe he could be assertive in his dealings with administrators but it is selective depending on whom he is fighting for – biased and preferential treatment seems to be more accurate.

Although the union has granted his appeals in moving his grievances forward to the Chancellor’s level, I strongly believe they are simply going through the motions in fear of possible complaints filed against them to the National Labor Relations Board or the ACLU. It is in the hearings that union representatives are not asserting contractual rights aggressively, thus the defeatist attitudes I allege above. It appears the union has adopted a passive attitude when dealing with teachers whom they have very little investment in. The NYC Dept of Education has created an anti-teaching culture of fear and the UFT fosters that culture. It is a shame because as I stated earlier, first year teachers are dues paying members yet they are not represented aggressively or fairly. I am reminded by another infamous historical quote: “NO Taxation Without Representation!!”