City employees file grievance, seek thousands of dollars in back-pay

The city employee union has filed an official grievance against the City of El Paso, alleging it owes employees tens of thousands of dollars in back grievance pay.

“They’ve been cheated out of their longevity pay,” said David Guzman, a field representative for the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

The union alleges the city has been in violation of city ordinance since 2006, when it eliminated longevity payments in employee bi-weekly paychecks. Section C of the city’s Classification and Compensation Ordinance states “longevity payments made under this ordinance will be made on a bi-weekly basis.”

“I think they should be thinking a lot more before they make these changes,” Guzman said about the city.

The city in 2006, under then City Manager Joyce Wilson abandoned the practice of allocating longevity pay on a bi-weekly basis and instead “reorganized” the longevity pay as a 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent pay increase every five years, depending on if the employee was celebrating five years or more with the city. City officials made the change in a budget resolution but Guzman argues the resolution does not supercede the ordinance.

Guzman said the small increases the city has put in place don’t cover what an employee would be paid through regular longevity payments.

“We calculated on one employee only and it was just a rough estimate of $7900 that was due since 2006 to date.”

Longevity pay was based on how long a city employee had worked with the city: $8 a paycheck for those with less than five years of experience and up to $1,200 a year for employees with more than 25 years.

The grievance is filed on behalf of 64 Sun Metro employees, but Guzman said the union will push for the city to issue past longevity pay to all non-uniformed employees, if the Civil Service Commission agrees with AFSCME. Uniformed employees with the Fire and Police Departments have their own unions and collective bargaining agreements with the city. Guzman said the union “cannot determine right now” how much money that would cost the city but added “it could be in the millions.”

The Civil Service Commission tabled the issue at its latest meeting, pending a response from the city. In an email, the city’s communications director wrote: “The Commission directed that the issues be brought back at a future meeting with additional information to clarify information shared.” The city did not respond when asked what its stance was on the grievance.

Guzman said the Civil Service Commission will make a recommendation to City Council.