NAPE member Sally Ryan is a Social Services Lead Worker at the Department of Health and Human Services in Omaha. Sally has worked for DHHS for more than 20 years. In March 2022, Sally received her 2021 annual performance evaluation. In the evaluation, Sally was rated as unsatisfactory. This was Sally’s second consecutive unsatisfactory performance evaluation and she did not agree with the rating. Sally did the right thing and reached out to NAPE regarding the evaluation immediately.
Thanks to language in Article 26 of our contract, employees are now able to challenge their most recent unsatisfactory evaluation score if they receive unsatisfactory ratings for two consecutive calendar years. Sally brought her evaluation to the attention of NAPE, and the field services team began to investigate. After reading through her evaluation, the NAPE team identified Sally’s evaluation had some issues.
Although her evaluation score was unsatisfactory, Sally’s performance was praised throughout her entire evaluation in the comment sections. All in all, the evaluation painted a clear picture that Sally’s performance as a Social Services Lead Worker was at the very least satisfactory, if not exceptional. Additionally, Sally hadn’t faced any disciplinary action in the two years in which she was considered unsatisfactory. Due to these inconsistencies, the NAPE team filed a grievance on Sally’s behalf challenging her evaluation score.
After a hearing, DHHS agreed to settle the matter in Sally’s favor. This is a significant victory because not only will Sally now correctly be rated as satisfactory for 2021, but she will also receive her 2022 Step increase in July. We are glad that Sally contacted NAPE right away when she received her unsatisfactory performance evaluation because grievances must be filed within fifteen work days. If you or a coworker believe our contract has been violated, please reach out to NAPE right away so that we can investigate the situation.