Stewards August08

Report on the WV Public Employees Grievance Board Prepared by the Executive Committee West Virginia Public Workers Union, UE Local 170

Fiscal Year 2008 was the first year of operation by the West Virginia Public Employees Grievance Board under the revised statutes. In that period, 1544 new grievances were filed by public workers covered by the provisions. A combined total of 463 decisions were issued by the five staff administrative law judges (ALJs) during that same period. Of those decisions, 78% were denied completely, with another 5% denied in part. In the Final Report on grievance procedures prepared by the WVU Institute for Labor Studies and Research for the legislature’s Joint Committee on Government and Finance (March 1, 2006), it was determined that only 15% of grievance decisions issued in 2004 (the last year for which totals were provided) were granted in favor of employees. A frequent justification of adopting the revised statute was to address what was acknowledged as a statistically lopsided outcome under the old statute. The glaring bias in favor of the employer was to be addressed under a procedure that was touted as more fair to grievants than had previously been the case. The 2008 figure of 17% of decisions granted to the employee is, however, only marginally different from the 2004 figure contained in the Final Report, as well as below the figures for most years prior to 2004. The inescapable conclusion is that the legislative remedy adopted in July 2007 failed to adequately address the issue of fairness in West Virginia’s public employee grievance system. The West Virginia Public Workers Union, UE Local 170, therefore calls for the following legislative remedies: Strengthening and expanding the due process rights, including the right to representation, of West Virginia’s public employees Adoption of collective bargaining for West Virginia’s public employees Removal of the West Virginia Public Employees Grievance Board from the administrative authority of the executive branch and its reassignment to the administrative authority of the state’s judicial branch