A District Court judge sided with NAPE/AFSCME member Nicole Jurgens, a Physical Therapy Aide at the Beatrice State Developmental Center (BSDC), after the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) refused to pay her the shift differential she had earned while working out of class as a Developmental Technician.
BSDC has, what it calls, a Supplemental Staffing Pool, which gives employees qualified to work as direct care staff the opportunity to do so when the facility is short staffed. Our contract allows employees to work temporarily out of class and to work extra shifts out of class when necessary.
Under our union contract, direct care staff earn shift differentials based on which shifts they work. When Nicole was told that she would receive the appropriate weekend shift differential for working out of class as a Developmental Care Technician but no longer qualified for the weekday 2nd and 3rd shift differential when working out of class as a Developmental Technician, she knew something wasn’t right.
“It didn’t make sense that I wasn’t getting the weekday differential for the time I worked, so I reached out right away because I thought that I was entitled to that extra pay and wanted clarification from my representative,” she said.
DHHS violated our union contract because Nicole was working as direct care staff and should have been paid the appropriate shift differentials. Our union filed a timely grievance on her behalf.
DHHS argued that Nicole was not entitled to the shift differentials for direct care staff, despite the fact that it paid her the weekend differential. The agency further argued that shift differentials only apply to employees who work permanently in direct care staff classifications.
NAPE/AFSCME argued that our contract does not limit direct care shift differentials to only the employees who occupy those positions full time. Additionally, our union argued that by paying Nicole the weekend differential, the agency acknowledged that she was working as direct care staff and was therefore entitled to the differential. It did not make sense that she would be paid the weekend differential but not the weekday differential for the same work.
The case proceeded to the State Personnel Board. The Board rejected the recommendation of its hearing officer that Nicole be paid the differential, and NAPE/AFSCME appealed to the District Court of Lancaster County.
Judge Susan Strong overturned the Personnel Board, stating that the contract language was unambiguous and the differentials should be applied to all employees doing direct care work. Nicole was awarded back wages for the hours she worked as direct care staff, and Judge Strong ordered the State of Nebraska to pay NAPE/AFSCME for its legal fees.
“When I found out we’d won, I knew that it was worth fighting for it, even though the process took almost two years,” she said. “It was long, but overall the process wasn’t bad. I was very comfortable and my representative was easy to work with.”
If you think you haven’t been properly compensated for work you performed in a different classification, contact us right away. Strict time limits apply.
