The conflict between the Secretaries and Assistants Association of Anne Arundel County and the Board of Education is not over, according to the union.
While other unions were negotiating next year’s agreements, this union has been at an impasse with the school district over the current year’s agreement.
The Public Employee Relations Board ruled on Feb. 25 that the Board of Education’s proposed agreement would stand over two alternatives: an agreement proposed by the union and an agreement proposed by a state-appointed mediator.
“Our view of this is that we’ve been imposed on,” said the union’s lead negotiator, Bradley Darjean.
The board unanimously voted to approve the agreement at its meeting Wednesday, but the union is consulting with lawyers and planning to appeal the ruling, Darjean said.
The school district and union have been at an impasse since June, forcing them into mediation. In December, the mediator offered a settlement, which the union accepted and the district rejected.
That escalated the conflict to the Public Employee Relations Board. While the back-and-forth stretched on, union members did not receive last year’s budgeted 3% cost-of-living raise that was due in July. Now that the board voted on the agreement this week, those employees will see their back pay in the next pay period.
“This has been a lengthy process in which our Unit IV employees have been prevented from receiving compensation increases due to the lack of an agreement,” district spokesperson Bob Mosier said in a statement. “We are pleased that those employees can now receive their well-deserved increases and we can move forward.”
The union had two main issues it hoped to address in these negotiations. The concerns were addressed in the union’s proposal and partially addressed in the mediator’s proposal.
Union members want 12-month secretaries to be paid over school breaks to the same extent as all other 12-month employees. They also want teacher assistants who regularly substitute as the primary teacher in a classroom to receive equal pay to that of a primary teacher. Neither of these issues was addressed by the board’s proposal.
The ruling from the Public Employee Relations Board concludes that both the union and mediator proposals place a “significant financial burden” on the Board of Education and infringe on the district’s authority to determine when schools close for holidays.
Darjean called the ruling “unprecedented.” He has been in his position for 17 years. In that time, Darjean said the union reached an impasse with the district twice, but both issues were resolved in mediation. The union is in new territory with the ruling from the Public Employee Relations Board, but Darjean believes an appeal is possible based on conversations with its counsel.
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