Some recent victories from the CTU Grievance Department!
Personal business days
Prior to 2012, there were contractual restrictions on when and how PB days could be used. Those restrictions were eliminated in 2012. The Union’s position has been that this meant that employees could use their PB days freely without restrictions. Partially in response to their self-created crisis of substitute coverage, the Board attempted to re-impose restrictions through the backdoor of principal/school handbooks. This resulted in numerous cases that progressed from grievances to arbitrations, and resulted in a number of wins for CTU members. The arbitration decisions have established the following precedents:
- PB days cannot be denied based on the nature of your personal business (e.g., your cousin’s wedding vs. traffic court) but only on the needs of your specific school to maintain safe and adequate staffing.
- Principals can set up a justifiable maximum number of teachers that can use PB days each day, but they cannot make that number so low that it creates difficulty for teachers who wish to utilize all three of their benefit days. The maximum must allow for possible last-minute emergency use in situations that cannot be anticipated.
- Bargaining unit members must be notified of any PB day use restrictions in writing, and restrictions cannot be arbitrarily or disparately enforced.
Religious holidays
Two recent cases have supported teachers who were denied religious holiday benefit pay. The arbitrators ruled that the Board cannot maintain an unpublished “secret” list of religious holidays that qualify for such pay.
In the settlement of a separate case, CPS agreed that clinicians will no longer have the costs of a substitute deducted when they use a religious holiday if no substitute is provided in their absence.
Dirty schools
The Union has won a case at Simeon High School where the building was dirty and contractually mandated cleaning was not taking place on a regular basis. While the Board has a legal right to select a contractor or sub-contractor for cleaning, the Board has an obligation under our contract to ensure that required daily cleaning is done. The cleanliness has improved at Simeon, and, per the arbitrator’s order, there will soon be daily charts posted in each room at the school for the custodian to sign confirming that the work has been done.
If your school has an ongoing cleanliness issues, contact you field rep about filing a grievance.
Kronos
The Union won language in our new contract that will return Kronos timekeeping duties to school clerks by the start of the 2020-2021 school year. That said, teachers have been doing this work for the past few years, resulting in increased non-teaching time and additional burdensome paperwork that violates our previous contract. One school has filed a grievance asking for compensation for this work. We encourage other schools who wish to preserve their right to possible back pay to reach out to their field representative to file a grievance.
