A new contract for Scranton's clerical union that was approved Thursday resolved a lingering legal battle over two jobs in the clerk's office of city council.
Council on Thursday adopted a resolution to approve a new contract with the city's clerical union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 2462.
The contract, agreed upon by the administration and union in December, called for no raise in 2012, and then a 3.75 percent raise in 2013, a 3.5 percent raise in 2014 and a 3.75 percent raise in 2015.
But approval of the contract had been tabled by the council on Jan. 26 due to a legal dispute between the administration, union and council over control of two clerical positions within the council clerk's office - an executive assistant and a confidential secretary.
The fight stemmed from the Jan. 1, 2011, council reclassification of the two clerk's office union clerical positions as outside of the union and placement of them under the jurisdiction of the council and its clerk, according to legal papers.
The council claimed the positions were legislative and confidential in nature and, under the Home Rule Charter and Administrative Code, the council had the sole right to hire and fire these two employees.
The change came at a time the mayor and council were battling over the city's 2011 budget and the mayor had proposed eliminating the clerk's secretary job. The council's revised budget eliminated both positions as union jobs but renamed them and provided for raises of $4,000 for the executive assistant and $600 for the confidential secretary. The mayor vetoed that budget, but council overrode the veto and the now-nonunion clerical posts remained in place.
The union filed a grievance with the city arguing that the council's reclassification unilaterally eliminated two union jobs, but retained the same two employees who continued to do the same work they previously did. In an October 2011 ruling, an arbitrator agreed with the union and restored the two union positions.
The first time the council learned of the grievance and arbitrator's decision was when the two clerk's office employees, Executive Assistant Kathy Carrera and Confidential Secretary Jamie Marciano, received notices on Nov. 4, 2011, that their jobs would be terminated on Dec. 5, 2011, when the posts would revert to prior union positions of assistant city clerk and secretary to the clerk respectively, legal papers state.
Council then sued to vacate the arbitration award and argued it had never been aware of the grievance and the union failed to follow proper grievance procedures of first complaining to the immediate supervisor, who was the council clerk, "to keep council in the dark," legal papers state. During an arbitration hearing, the city was represented by the city business administrator, who was not an attorney, and this amounted to a "sham arbitration proceeding," council Solicitor Boyd Hughes argued in the council's lawsuit.
In May, a Lackawanna County Court judge upheld the arbitrator's ruling and dismissed the council's lawsuit. The council then filed in state Commonwealth Court an appeal, which had been pending until Friday when it was withdrawn by council under the Oct. 1 settlement.
Under this pact, which takes effect Jan. 1, the two clerk's office clerical positions will remain union jobs but as a separate classification under the jurisdiction of the council and its clerk, who will have the power over hiring and firing employees filling the two posts.
The result is that Ms. Carrera and Ms. Marciano get to keep their jobs and retain their seniority for purposes of vacation, sick, personal and retirement benefits, according to the agreement. The executive assistant will earn $16.42 an hour and the confidential secretary will earn $15.17 an hour, the agreement states.
Ms. Carrera and Ms. Marciano declined to comment.
Asked which side won the legal battle, council President Janet Evans and clerical union President Eileen Hurchick agreed that both sides won.
"I'm just very happy that it was amicably settled," Ms. Hurchick said.
The settlement also is contingent upon the city creating two new clerical unions positions and funding them in the 2013 budget, including: a rental registration assistant/housing inspector in the Department of Licensing, Inspections and Permits; and a financial analyst in the Department of Business Administration. Mrs. Evans said that both of these positions are necessary.
Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com