By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

A Local 420 member at Harlem Hospital won a $7,400 title upgrade and $3,200 in back pay after the Office of Labor Relations favorably decided a grievance the union filed on her behalf.

Shirley Medina worked for Harlem Hospital as a Central Supply Assistant since 2002. By November 2015, she met the state requirements for certification as a Central Service Technician, Level 2, which pays about $7,400 more annually.

The following year, in 2016, the union and Health and Hospitals revised the Central Supply Assistant title to Central Service Technician,
levels 1 and 2.

“I took the exam, met the hour requirements and submitted my paperwork so I thought I’d automatically get the bump up. I was already doing the work,” Medina said. “I talked to a coworker and we compared our paychecks.”

That’s when Medina found out she never received the upgrade. Her manager had retired without processing Medina’s paperwork. So she went to a union meeting and asked for help. The result was a grievance filed on her behalf.The case went to the NYC Office of Labor Relations, which ordered NYC H+H to upgrade Medina’s title and salary and pay her about $3,200 in retroactive pay. When Medina, who is on maternity leave, returns to Harlem Hospital, her new title will pay almost $42,000.

“The extra money will come in handy,” Medina said of the promotion and pay hike. “I appreciate that my union fought for me and got satisfying answers to my questions.”

Local 420 President Carmen Charles said, “Shirley Medina’s state certification qualified her to move up the career ladder and the union made sure NYC H+H promoted and compensated her appropriately.”

This article originally appeared in the July-August 2017 issue of Public Employee Press.

The DC 37 Blog is an online publication of DC 37, AFSCME, which represents 125,000 municipal workers in New York City.