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HomeMy WebLinkAboutGibson 93-02-23 IN THE MATTER OF AN EXPEDITED CLASSIFICATION ARBITRATION PROCEEDING UNDER ARTICLE 18.4.3 OF THE COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT BETWEEN: ONTARIO COUNCIL OF REGENTS FOR COLLEGES OF APPLIED ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE FORM OF MOHAWK COLLEGE (hereinafter called the "College") ONTARIO PUBLIC SERVICE EMPLOYEES UNION (FOR SUPPORT STAFF EMPLOYEES) (hereinafter called the "Union") GRIEVANCE OF MARY GIBSON OPSEU FILE NO. 92F961 (hereinafter called the "Grievor") EXPEDITED ARBITRATOR: Richard H. McLaren COUNSEL FOR THE COLLEGE: Sandra Lawler COUNSEL FOR THE UNION: Betty Savoie A HEARING IN RELATION TO THIS MATTER WAS HELD AT HAMILTON, ONTARIO, ON FEBRUARY 17, 1993. AWARD Mary Gibson grieves that she is improperly classified. She is employed in the Office~ of Special Needs, which is a department within the Student Services Division of the College. She is classified as a Secretary B. She does the coordination of alternative test arrangements for students with special needs. These students may include ones who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, hearing impaired, learning disabled, mobility impaired, physically disabled or may have a multiple series of impairments. The parties agree that the position description form ("PDF") accurately reflects the job description. As a Secretary B she is curremly paid in payband 6. She. seeks and evaluation of her classification that would place her in the Secretary B range of jobs at payband 8.Under the Core Point Rating System deployed by the parties for determining job classification their respective positions as filed with the Arbitrator are set out below: Management Union ELEMENTS Rating Pts. Rating Pts. JOB DIFFICULTY ~22 C4 144 GUIDANCE RECEIVED C4 1.24 D4 150 COMMUNICATIONS B3 59 C3 84 KNOWLEDGE T INI m/EXPERIENCE 7¢ ~'~ D4 90 SKILL 3 34 3 34 WORKING MANUAL A 5 3 A5 3 , :CONDITIONS VISUAL B3 7 B3 7 ENVIRONMENTAL A5 3 A5 3 TOTAL POINTS PAYBAND NUMBER 6 8 The parties disagree on one of the factors in each of the elements of Job Difficulty; Guidance Received; Communications and the Training/Experience Factor of the Knowledge element. The grievance is dated October 1, 1992. The request for re-dress is back dated to October, 1991. The reason for this is tied to the fact that the Grievor, Mary Gibson, had been reclassified as of October of 1990. The department had been growing and changing over the course of the previous couple of years since its inception. When the position was reclassified in October of 1990, a discussion ensued between Mary Gibson and her Supervisor, Rachel Thachuk, in which it was agreed that there would be a further review in October of 1991. That review did not take place at that time but did begin in the Summer of 1992. The Grievor's position was confirmed as being accurately classified and the present: grievance ensued. · In these circumstances the Arbitrator finds, that while' there was an understanding.~ between the: Manager and the employee that her position would be looked at again for the purposes of classification a year later there were other things going on which caused that not to occur. The employee did not press the matter and thus it got deferred. The employee was free to have pressed the matter or filed a grievance. Part way through the following year the re-examination was conducted. It took from July until October of 1992. If it had been done on time the same amount of time would have been spent doing it between October of 1991 and some period in the Spring of 1992. That means at best matters were behind schedule by one half of one year. Therefore, in these circumstances it is inappropriate to back date the effect of the grievance to this agreement review date of the employee and the supervisor. The grievance will only have effect as of its date of October 1st, 1992. The Grievor does request retroactive compensation 4 for the differential of lost pay, plus interest. Interest is a regular feature of expedited arbitration proceedings; at least when the grievance requests that it be paid. Therefore, if any monies are owing as a result of this award interest will be required to be paid on the amounts owing, but only from the date of October 1, 1992. CORE POINT RATING AND JOB EVALUATION FACTORS I. JOB DIFFICULTY - College C-3: Union C-4. The parties agree on the level, of' Complexity as being, at the C level. They disagree on the Judgement level. (i) Judgement - College at 3; Union at 4 The Union asserts that the Judgement level ought to be at 4. It is described as: "...Duties performed require considerable degree of Judgement. Problem-solving involves handling a variety of conventional problems, questions or situations with established analytical techniques." The College submits that the appropriate level for Judgement for the position is 3. The description for that level reads: "Duties performed require a moderate degree of Judgement. Problem-solving requires the identification of break-down of the facts and components of the problem situation." Mary Gibson provides typical secretarial functions for the Office of Special Needs. The PDF indicates that these tasks absorb approximately 30% of her time. The significant proportion of her time, being 60 %, is involved in coordinating alternative testing for Special Needs students. These tasks require that an individual act independently. Judgement must be exercised in the process in the process of making decisions about how to provide tests to the student; who is to be present be they.Invigilator, Scribe or Reader; and, the time, location and technology to be used in the course of testing. At issue between the parties in this element .~ is the degree of Judgement required' in carrying:out'these tasks'.: Level'4 is stated.torequire:a .. "considerable degree of judgement"; whereas-level 3 requires a "moderate degree of judgement". The difficulty with the application of this particular .description can be found in the fact that it does not really recognize human interaction as a process over which judgement may be involved. It is, therefore, difficult to apply the language of this matrix to the circumstances. In listening to the discussion by the Grievor and Rachel Thachuk, the Manager, the Arbitrator concludes that this individual essentially acts entirely independently in setting up and making arrangements for these special needs students and does so by exercising a wide range of discretion. There are some 500 of these students and that involves the employee in making arrangements for anywhere from 5 to 10 students daily and at peak periods 15 to 20 students for special alternative testing arrangements. The various difficulties and disabilities of the students need to be understood in terms of the constraints that it will impose on the testing process and who is to be present to facilitate the testing process. That same knowledge is required in order to determine timing, location and aids to the testing process which may be required. There is no doubt that the individual is required to exercise judgement. The wide range of different disabilities exhibited by the special needs students does require that this individual exercise a wide range of discretion, which can only be done by making judgement calls and decisions. While the Arbitrator finds that the language does not particularly lend itself to the application of this Position because it involves human interaction rather than problem-solving the Arbitrator has concluded that the best fit of the tasks with the language would be to recognize that there is a considerable degree of judgement rather than only a moderate degree of judgement. Therefore, the Arbitrator has concluded that the better description of the Judgement element within'the duties and responsibilities factor is that of the Union. Therefore;' the position'is rated' as:having a degree of judgement at level 4. II. GUIDANCE RECEIVED - College C-4; Union D-4 The parties are in agreement that the nature of the review for this particular position is at level 4. The disagreement between them focuses on the Guidelines Available to perform the job. The Union asserts that the Guidelines Available ought to be at level D for this position. The description for that is: "Work is performed in accordance with the procedures and past practices which may be adapted and modified to meet particular situations and/or problems. A supervisor is available to assist in 7 resolving problems." The College asserts that the Guidelines Available aspect of the Guidance Received matrix is more appropriately placed at the C level. The description for that level reads: "Work is performed in accordance with general procedures and past practices. Unfamiliar situations are reviewed with supervisor." In listening to the Manager, Rachel Thachuk, describe the evolution of the department from 5 years ago when she was part-time and they had fewer than 50 students requiring special needs services to their present department which has her as the full-time Manager, the Grievor as the full-time Secretary, 3 Consultants and 2 part-timers handling a load in excess of 300 students, one is struck by the' fact that everyone:has learned:as the department has grown and demand for its services has evolved: Therefore', there'are little in the way of general prOcedures or past practices. There is certainly no written procedures and past practice is not that significant because of the changing volume and increasing range of disabled students that are using the department's facilities. Furthermore, it is certainly not the case that unfamiliar situations are reviewed with the supervisor. The Grievor acts on her own initiative based on her own knowledge and exercises a wide degree of discretion without much supervision or direction. She certainly adapts and modifies her activities to meet any particular situation whether that involves the recognition of the possible violation of the College's Academic Dishonesty Policy or the need to change the testing environment or process while the test is ongoing. It would seem from all of the different activities that she is engaged in and listening carefully to what she had to say that the work which she performs really has little to do with established procedures 8 or past practices. There is a past history which is continually being modified and adopted to deal with evolving situations and newly arising situations with students with disabilities that the person has dealt with before. While the supervisor is availabl~ there certainly does not seem to be a great deal of overseeing or review by the supervisor. Therefore, recognizing that the Guidelines Available description language is not as appropriate as it might the to the application to this particular type of job, the Arbitrator finds that the work'of the position is much closer to the description at level D, than it is at level C. Therefore, the Arbitrator finds that the position ought to be rated at D-4, in respect of the Guidance Received matrix. III. COMMUNICATION .z.' College B-3: Union..C-3:...,~..:. The parties agree that the level of contacts within the Communication matrix is appropriately determined at 3. The parties disagree about the application of the Purpose of Contacts element of the Communication matrix. The Union asserts that it ought to be at level C, whereas the College asserts that it ought to be at level B. The Purpose of Contacts at level C is described as: "Work involves contacts for the purpose of providing guidance, instruction or technical advice or for the purpose of explaining various matters by interpreting procedures or policy." In contrast the College asserts that the Purpose of Contacts is at level B. That description reads as follows: "Work involves contacts for the purpose of providing detailed explanations to ensure understanding on matter such as how information was collected or how a figure was calculated." The degree of autonomy in the job and the wide latitude of discretion means that when the incumbent has contact with Special Needs students she is providing both instruction and advice for "the purpose of explaining various matters by interpreting procedures or policy." She is, together with the student, working on the constraints placed upon the testing process by the students disability. At the same time, she is applying the College's policies in respect of testing and constraints that may have been imposed by the faculty in the testing process. She is certainly doing more than providing a detailed explanation' ':or .understanding of the circumstances. She is both advising' and instructing 'and creating 'the circumstances' in which the student will be tested. Therefore, the Arbitrator concludes that it is a better description of the contacts which are involved with this position at the C level than at the B level. The Arbitrator, therefore, accepts the position of the Union that the position ought to be rated at C-3. IV. KNOWLEDGE - College D-3; Union D-4 The parties are in agreement that the Experience factor of the Knowledge matrix is appropriately determined at level D. They disagree on the Training factor of the Knowledge matrix. The Union submits that the Training required for the position is best described at level 4 which states: "Required skills normally acquired to attainment of secondary school graduation and completion of additional job related training courses or equivalent." The College submits that the appropriate level is that of 3, which reads: "Required skills normally acquired through attainment of secondary school graduation or equivalent." The PDF indicates the following: "Secondary School. Graduation' Diploma ;. PostSecondary education,: ... in a related area; Secretarial training at the College level." The position of the College on this element is that the minimum for the position is a secondary school graduation or equivalent diploma. The PDF clearly indicates that more is required. The classification system is intended to reflect a minimum entrance requirement required to undertake the duties and responsibilities of the position. If the minimum entrance requirements are only secondary school graduation then that ought to be reflected in the PDF. It is an insufficient explanation on the part of the College to say that the other matters are merely desirable and not really required. What is desirable can become the minimum. The PDF is certainly set out to include them and therefore the Arbitrator ought to conclude that the appropriate classification rating is at level 4, which contemplates additional job related training courses or the equivalent beyond post-secondary school education. Therefore, the Arbitrator confirms the position of the Union at D-4. V. CONCLUSION The Arbitrator has rated the core functions of the position and finds that the position is an atypical Secretary B in payband 8. The core point total is 515, which places the position within that payband. It is ordered that the position be re-classified as a Secretary B in accordance with this expedited arbitration award. The Grievor is entitled to receive compensation from the date of the grievance to the date of this award, together with interest, as is the practice in these classification awards-. The College. is ordered to make the adjusting payment to the Grievor by the second pay period after the receipt of this award. The Arbitrator remains seized as to the determination of the amount of compensation, which may be owing to the Grievor in the event that the parties are unable to agree. Either party may reconvene the hearing by written request of the Arbitrator within 45 days from the date of this award for the purposes of determining the amount of compensation owing in the event the parties are unable to agree. I want to thank the representatives of the parties for the excellent job they did in presenting their positions. The submissions of the Grievor assisted me greatly in making the determinations; and the conduct of the parties' representatives was of the highest calibre. I appreciate the thoughtful and courteous way in which the case was presented and I want to commend everyone for doing an excellent job. DATED AT LONDON, ONTARIO THIS 23rd DAY OF FEBRUARY, 1993. Richard H. McLaren C. Arb. MohawkCo.llg Award ARBITRATION DATA SHEET - SUPPORT STAFF CLASSIFICATIONS COLLEGE Mohawk College INCUMBENT Mary Gibson PRESENT CLASSIFICATION Secretary B AND PAYBAND 6 SUPERVISOR Rachel Thachuk JOB FAMILY AND PAYBAND REQUESTED BY GRIEVOR A-Typical 8 POSITION DESCRIPTION FORM: 1. Position Description Form Attached 2. ~ Parties agree on contents of attached Position Description Form O_BR ~--~ Union disagrees with contents of attached Position Description Form SPECIFIC DETAILS OF THIS DISAGREEMENT ARE AS FOLLOWS: (USE REVERSE SIDE IF NECESSARY) · AWARD Management Union Arbitrator ELEMENTS Rating Pts. Rating Pts. Rating Pts. JOB DIFFICULTY GUIDANCE RECEIVED C4 124 D4 150 CO NICATIONS B3 59 C3 84 KNOWLEDGE TRAINING/EXPERIENCE ~ WORKING CONDITIONS VISUAL B3 7 B3 7 ENVIRONMENTAL A5 3 A5 3 TOTAL POINTS PAYBAND NUMBER 6 8 ATTACHED WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS: ~-~ The Union I I The College (Optional) SIGNATURES: FOR THE U~IQN. FO NAGEMENT ./l~' ~or) . /, ~Da~e) ' (Date) (Unio~,~p.) ( D~e ) HeaDing ~Date Award Date