Long-sought labor concessions backfire at NYCHA complexes
A hard-fought agreement between City Hall and unionized caretakers at the New York City Housing Authority was supposed to be part of a dramatic turnaround of the public housing system, but a recent report indicates the accord has thus far created a host of problems.
For years, NYCHA has sought more flexible hours from the Teamsters Local 237, which represents workers who perform janitorial duties and upkeep on public housing grounds. The workers had traditionally worked from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. five days a week — meaning residents were often greeted with piles of garbage and sub-par conditions on weekends and on weekday mornings — though a pilot program expanded those hours on a limited basis. After disagreements within City Hall and a series of false starts, late last year the authority finally got its wish in exchange for additional payouts to workers.
However, a report by the federal monitor overseeing NYCHA said the alternative work schedule system has caused problems at a number of developments, and has been uniformly criticized by workers.
“Development personnel have repeatedly told us that there are days when the necessary team of personnel required to accomplish all daily duties cannot be fully assembled, causing tasks to be neglected,” the monitor, Bart Schwartz, wrote in his second quarterly report.
Work hours were expanded to cover shifts from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. Yet aside from 210 new caretakers NYCHA recently hired, the pool of more than 3,000 workers has not significantly expanded. The monitor suggested that this mismatch has led to staff shortages at some developments, which in turn has impaired NYCHA’s ability to clean mold, manage garbage and control pests.
“NYCHA staff reportedly has been unable to start work during some [alternative work schedule] early hours because they do not have access to equipment rooms,” the monitor wrote. “This happens when supervisors, who hold the keys to equipment rooms, are not also working early hours.”
Another development had 36 staff members working on a Monday, but only nine staffers working on a Friday with none who could lift heavy trash bags out of the compactors servicing 18 buildings.
“The lack of adequate staffing may lead to conditions where waste is piled up and not removed, as we recently saw in front of a playground at a development,” the monitor wrote.
However, NYCHA said the scheduling problems have been isolated, and that the alternate work schedule has not been in place long enough to judge whether it is effective. Since April, it has been rolled out to more than 50 developments and is scheduled for implementation across the entire 326-development portfolio in the first quarter of 2020.
“Like any new program there will be some hiccups in getting it started and up and running,” Vito Mustaciuolo, NYCHA general manager, said in an interview. “What people have to take into consideration is that the it’s the biggest change contractually in over 50 years — it’s a complete departure of how we’ve done business — and to suggest you are going to turn a switch on and its going to work overnight is a little unrealistic.”
Mustaciuolo said that he has been satisfied with the results thus far, and that the alternative work schedule has proven successful at some developments that could serve as models for those that are experiencing problems. Eventually, he said, the process will provide tangible improvements in living conditions for residents.
And while the authority agrees that it needs more staff, the January settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development did not stipulate any additional funds to pay for new hires.
“The question is: how do we pay for that staff?” he said. “That’s something the new chair and I have been working on. How do we increase staffing levels and come up with ideas like [alternative work schedules].”
With a limited budget, the authority is exploring shifting staffing levels from back office to front-line positions such as caretakers. However, several roadblocks have arisen that imperil a wider application of the new scheduling paradigm.
In mid-October, the Teamsters asked a Manhattan Supreme Court judge to issue a temporary restraining order that would prevent NYCHA from implementing the new hours. The union argued that its workers were being asked to work early morning and late shifts — which it characterized as before 8 a.m. and after 4:30 p.m. — without proper safety measures such as lighting and functioning doors that the authority promised would be in place.
The judge, Eileen Rakower, denied the Teamsters’ request. However, the union has left open the window to pursuing its complaints through arbitration, which could stymie the scheduled rollout.
And earlier this year, the union membership rejected a separate agreement reached between City Hall and Teamster brass that would have brought similar hours to maintenance workers. Residents have long asked to have repairs done in their units outside of work hours when they are more likely to be home.
The matter is currently in arbitration, and NYCHA officials are hoping for a result before the end of the year.