MGEC’s class-action grievance against MnDOT continues for the eight MGEC members whom the agency is demanding pay back authorized work hours simply because those work hours occurred in a pay period that contained a holiday. The issue involves language in the contract regarding pay for FLSA-exempt employees.
Rather than acknowledge that the place to have any discussion of how contract language is interpreted in the forum in which Minnesota state law and the contract itself demand – in front of a neutral arbitrator – the state has decided to go another route: They simply declared that there is a “debt”, and threatened the affected employees with direct legal action in the state’s Court of Administrative Hearings. While MGEC does not have standing to appear in this Court, we have provided legal representation to the affected employees because we strongly feel that this is a matter that belongs in arbitration, and have made that argument to the Administrative Law Judge on behalf of our members. Within minutes of this writing, that worked: rather than wait for a ruling from the Judge, the state has offered to stipulate that the issue should be resolved in arbitration – where it should have been in the first place. The Step 1 meeting was held in January and MGEC is encouraging a rapid and favorable response from the agency.
Our labor agreement means nothing if one party simply decides to go around it; it becomes unenforceable. With the support of the MGEC Advocacy Committee and the Board of Directors, we will continue to seek a solution that is positive for our members and honors our contract.