Job Class and Duties Issues During Bad Economic Times

During these days of economic crisis and lay off of valued state employee members, a lot of issues surface in the classification and duties arena. Valued state workers in one job class are eliminated and the work gets added to a different job class. This creates numerous issues for members. There is no one size fits all answer to all the questions these issues pose. However, it is worth sharing a few thoughts from a wise woman we all know who works with classification and pay issues.

“ On one hand, management has the right to assign work. On the other hand, historically additional work being assigned is supposed to be within the scope of the job or job series, and usually of a higher level as long as it's not over 51% of the time.”

As management tries to accomplish the mission of the agency with fewer and fewer staff, it becomes ever more attractive to assign work outside the job class and hope members and stewards will say nothing. Members should not risk being insubordinate but neither should they remain silent when the work assigned is inappropriate. Here are some ideas that members may use to work with their stewards and union staff to address the issue in a manner that may net results. As always, no guarantees but if nothing is ventured nothing is gained.

1. Members may request a new PDF with the additional duties they have been given, signed by their supervisor.
2. Members may request that the supervisor provide to them, in writing, the new duties they are assigned.
3. Members may ask the steward or union staff to help them analyze the duties against the job specifications to see whether they believe it falls within the scope of the job at the current level or, perhaps a higher level.
4. Members may work with stewards and union staff to see if they can identify either a reallocation issue or the possibility of assignment pay for doing duties outside the scope of their job.

Whether or not the effort results in a change in assignments or compensation, if membership is diligent about the assignments, management will be aware that members are continually looking at the issue. That in itself will cause them to be more cognizant about assigning unrelated duties to the job class.

Classification and compensation are contract issues. While we are dedicated state employees committed to accomplishing the work of the agencies for Washington state citizens, we expect our contract to be respected and upheld by management.

Thank you to Kathy Andruss and our dedicated WFSE staff representatives for assistance with this issue.