Dispute over back pay for former Warren Tech staffers heads to arbitration

FRANKLIN TWP. | The ongoing dispute over back pay for former staff members at Warren County Technical School is headed to arbitration after the school board refused to make the payments.

The school board informed the Warren Tech Education Association last week that it denied the grievance filed on behalf of five teachers, a secretary and a maintenance worker. The teachers union has turned to an independent arbitrator to settle the matter.

The union has argued that the seven former employees -- including a woman who died while on sick leave -- are entitled to between $1,200 and $2,000 each in retroactive pay for time spent working in the district before a new contract was approved over the summer.

"Former employees are entitled to their retroactive back pay for their time working in the district without a contract," union President Ed Yarusinsky said in a prepared statement, declining further comment.

The school board notified the staff in a February letter that former employees would not receive back pay, but the issue was never addressed in the final contract, Chief School Administrator Robert Glowacky said. The district has never faced a similar situation regarding back pay for former employees, Glowacky said.

"I would say neither side anticipated this happening, but it happened," said Glowacky, adding that the topic will be part of future contract talks.

After the contract was resolved following two years of negotiations, the school district sent out nearly $300,000 in retroactive paychecks in July. The back pay covers July 1, 2006, to last July 15.

In the district's view, the former employees are not entitled to back pay because the teachers union no longer represents them, they did not vote on the new contract and a provision for retroactive pay was not included in that contract or the employees' original agreements, Glowacky said.

"We are wasting a lot of time and spending money on people who don't work here anymore," he said. "I'd rather deal with grievances for people who are working here."

Yarusinsky previously said it was understood that the former staff members would receive back pay because the contract was finalized with those individuals in mind as members of the bargaining unit.