Secretaries settle case with SF State

The department secretaries who filed a classification grievance against SF State agreed to a settlement with the university on Nov. 16.

The settlement calls for the university to review the position of any of the 44 secretaries who choose to submit a reclassification request and a current job description by Dec. 22. They also won the right to a new appeal process.

Under the agreement, if a secretary isn't happy with the initial reclassification ruling by the human resource department, he or she can take the case to a board made up of two people selected by the California State Employees Association and two selected by the university.

The appeals board will also include an administrator mutually agreed upon by the union and the university. The administrator will make the final decision on any case.

The 44 secretaries filed the grievance with human resources in April and claimed, among other things, that they were misclassified for three years. They originally asked for reclassification into the Administrative Operations Analyst class, back pay (about $400,000) and seniority rights.

Bill Insley, chief CSEA steward, said the change is a major difference from normal reclassification steps but is only for the secretaries who signed on to the grievance. He said the appeals board has the ultimate say.

"If the (appeals) board decides to overrule human resources it can, or if it decides to uphold human resources it can," Insley said.

Many of the secretaries said their jobs evolved from clerical work to more administrative duties, and they wanted the administration to recognize the change. Ed Waite, associate director of human resources, said the university acknowledged growing duties of the secretaries.

"There have been significant changes in the way the departments and colleges operate over the years," Waite said.

Some of the secretaries felt the administration got the message.

"I'm really pleased with the settlement, and I'm operating on the viewpoint that human resources realizes that some of us are wrongly classified," said Kathleen Baker, a DS in the biological sciences department. Baker said she has already submitted her reclassification request.

Baker was pleased with the new review process and is glad the negotiations are over, she said.

"That was an excellent selling point," she said of the new appeal process. "None of us liked filing a grievance, but there was really no other way to be heard."

Virginia McDonald, a DS in the geography and human environmental studies department, said she likes the agreement but regrets not getting the raise the university offered in October. The university offered to create a new position that would have raised the secretaries' salary by 5 percent. The secretaries unanimously rejected the offer.

"In retrospect, it would have been nice to have the raise, but the selling feature of the agreement is the appeal," McDonald said. "I'm glad it's resolved, but we still have to submit a substantial amount of paperwork."

McDonald said she hasn't submitted a reclassification request yet, but plans to soon.

Waite said he was pleased with the agreement.

"I think we reached a good accord with the department secretaries, and it seems to be a reasonable one."

[ Golden Gater Online December 5, 1995 ]

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