Labor counsel: HART should let arbitration proceed on ATU hazard-pay grievance

Outside labor counsel David Adams told the HART Board the union’s grievance — filed May 2, 2024 — seeks time-and-one-half pay for work between Nov. 1, 2020, and May 11, 2023. Adams said the agency and the union previously agreed to a “40-hour agreement” in 2020 that guaranteed 40 hours’ pay to union members in exchange for waiving hazard pay, and he described that earlier agreement, the $1,500 bonus paid to each union member (a total of about $1,200,000), and the possible legal exposure if an arbitrator awards back pay.