Department of Children and Families

ONLINE RATIFICATION ELECTION ON PAY ADJUSTMENT FOR CHILD WELFARE WORKERS

Voting has ended in the ratification election of an agreement between AFSCME and DCF on pay adjustments for child welfare workers. The ratification results will be announced soon.

Learn more about agreement and ratification

Below is background on the negotiations over how the raises were distributed

Read AFSCME's Final Letter Re: Wages for DCF Investigators and Counselors

Welfare workers' raise upsets union

By CAROL MARBIN MILLER
cmarbin@herald.com
Posted on Sat, Sep. 06, 2003

A plan to distribute $30 million in raises to child welfare workers -- designed to signify the Department of Children & Families' commitment to ''improving the employee environment'' -- has led to a bitter confrontation with a powerful state union.

DCF Secretary Jerry Regier announced a plan Friday to award pay raises to 3,000 employees throughout the state, primarily employees who investigate child abuse or oversee children in foster care. Raises were included in a state budget signed by Gov. Jeb Bush in June.

The appropriation includes $1.6 million in salary hikes for child abuse investigators with the county sheriff's office, including Broward, which oversee child abuse services under contract with DCF.

For example, the plan will raise the average salary for a child abuse investigator from $30,700 to $35,200, Regier said. A foster care worker will, on average, see a salary hike from $31,100 to $34,000.

But the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees -- the state's second-largest public employee labor union, behind the teacher's union -- say the plan boosts the salaries of new child welfare workers, but does little to improve salaries of veteran employees.

''The more seniority employee have, the more likely they are not to receive a raise,'' said Carol Ann Loehndorf, AFSCME's state vice president. ``That's extremely bad for morale.

''You are going to have people who are just starting making the same thing as people who've been there six, seven or eight years,'' Loehndorf said.

Jerry G. Traynham, the union's lawyer, told state officials in a letter Friday the union was ''deeply disappointed'' in Regier's plan.

''The message being sent to DCFs most experienced professionals is that they occupy dead-end positions,'' Traynham wrote. ``DCF cannot cure runaway turnover with that message, and the losers will be Florida's vulnerable children.''

The pay raises were among the recommendations of the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Protection, appointed by Bush to investigate the disappearance last year of 5-year-old Miami foster child Rilya Wilson, whose disappearance touched off nearly a year of turmoil within the department.

She is still missing.

''Our staff is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of those within our care,'' Regier said in a statement.

``Bringing their salaries up to the national average signifies the value we place on what they have already accomplished and continue to do every day.''

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© 2003 The Miami Herald and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miami.com

AFSCME's Final Letter Re: Wages for DCF Investigators and Counselors

September 5, 2003

Michael Mattimore, Esquire By Facsimile To: (850) 561-0332
Chief Negotiator, State of Florida and (850) 922-6312
906 North Monroe Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32303

Cassandra K. Jackson, Esquire
Deputy General Counsel
Florida Department of Management Services
4050 Esplanade Way, Suite 260
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0950

Re: Wages for DCF Investigators and Counselors

Dear Mr. Mattimore and Ms. Jackson:

I received Ms. Jackson’s letter conveying what she described as the “State’s final and best offer” at approximately 6:30 p.m. on September 4, 2003. The offer appears to be substantively identical to the State’s earlier offer. Nevertheless, I have had an opportunity this morning to briefly discuss the offer with most of the members of our bargaining team. Despite serious reservations, and because AFSCME believes it is imperative to distribute the appropriated funds as quickly as is practicable, AFSCME is prepared to accept your economic package, as described below.

But first, we are all deeply disappointed in the decisions of your principals, particularly Secretary Jerry Regier of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCF), and the Governor, to put politics and bureaucracy ahead of serving the Legislature’s goal of achieving adequate salaries to retain front-line Family Safety workers. Under Secretary Regier’s scheme, DCF’s most senior and most experienced professionals will receive not a dime of the $30 Million provided by the Legislature to curtail runaway turn-over. The Secretary has chosen to overpay the bureaucrats, to the complete exclusion of the most experienced front-line professionals, who actually deliver services to the public. We deplore that the Secretary appears set on finding a way to make this laudable legislative effort fail. The message being sent to DCF’s most experienced professionals is that they occupy dead-end positions. DCF cannot cure runaway turnover with that message, and the losers will be Florida’s vulnerable children.

Nevertheless, AFSCME accepts your most recent economic proposal out of concern for the importance of expeditious delivery of some pay increases to at least some of the front-line professionals. In doing so, we understand that DCF will provide the base pay levels set forth in Attachment B of your proposal, as modified by the language of paragraph 3, Effective Date / Minimum Increase, providing for a minimum $500 increase in certain circumstances. We also understand that the allocation of any additional funds identified by DCF will be separately negotiated by the parties.

In connection with the agreement, AFSCME will accept any reasonable grievance-arbitration procedure which is legally sufficient, that is, any procedure which has “as its terminal step a final and binding disposition by an impartial neutral, mutually selected by the parties.” §447.401, Fla. Stat. (Supp. 2003). Thus far, your proposals have addressed only permissive language. We assume, however, that you will comply with the law, and we will work with you to set up the most efficient procedure practicable.

With respect to all other aspects of the agreement, we have all agreed that the language is essentially housekeeping. Your proposal language contains typographical errors, misspellings and ambiguities. We believe our language has greater clarity, but is certainly not perfect. This essentially housekeeping language can be adjusted quickly by the attorneys, without the need for the presence of our bargaining teams. I am available to do that with either or both of you, either Monday and/or Tuesday of next week.

Please let me hear from you in the immediate future, so that we can bring this matter to a proper conclusion.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Jerry G. Traynham

JGT/ms