CPS won’t expand remote work for clerks, aides
Chicago Public Schools has indicated it will continue to require certain staff members towork in person, despite an arbitrator’s ruling Thursday that they should be allowed to work mostly from home until CPS proves it’s minimized the risk of COVID-19 at each school.
Thursday’s ruling applies to clerks, technology coordinators and other select staff whom the independent labor arbitrator presumed should be permitted towork from home at least four days aweek, except where duties can’t be performed remotely.
It also requires CPS to determine which schools pass certified hazard assessments and provide the union with all the information they need to confirm the district’s determination. If a school is in compliance with health and safety requirements, 100% in-person work “is appropriate,” according to the arbitrator.
The ruling comes the week after CPS officials released an air quality and ventilation assessment that they said cleared most classrooms for students to return.
A district spokeswoman on Thursday said the arbitrator’s ruling reflects “an earlier time period of assessment” and that CPS has already taken care of the measures required to make buildings safe. District officials said they didn’t submit the ventilation information because the arbitrator wouldn’t accept additional evidence beyond their initial response.
The four- day remote work week is a flipped
version of the one-day remote schedule the union says CPS offered after the arbitrator initially ruled that the district should let employees work from home “when feasible.”
But in a statement provided in response to the ruling, CPS said it will “proceed with its current in-person staffing structure” because it has already “implemented measures the arbitrator says are necessary for a safe work environment.”
While arbitrator Jeanne Charles noted her final ruling “makes no finding with respect to the Board’s ability to reopen schools,” she found that CPS violated its contract with CTU by re
quiring employees to work in potentially unsafe conditions.
“I find reporting to work inside CPS school buildings at this time, increases the danger of infection by COVID-19, an airborne, highly communicable, deadly, and still not fully understood disease,” Charles wrote. “The only way to eliminate the risk of COVID-19 infection and death is for school clerks, school clerk assistants, and technology coordinators to work remotely.
“Although the Board (of Education) has made efforts to mitigate the risk,” Charles continued, “subjecting these employees to increased risk of COVID-19
infection for work that can be performed remotely does not provide reasonable protection to these employees, to the extent feasible, and fails to fulfill CPS’s contractual promise that its employees work in safe and healthful conditions.”
State law, public health guidance and expert testimony are cited in the ruling. CPS called several principals as witnesses, including some whowork at the same schools as staff members who served as witnesses for the union.
Despite spending money on air purifiers and protective equipment, CPS hasn’t provided evidence to determine that each school building is “safe and healthful,”
Charles wrote.
But she wrote that her decision assumes no hazard assessment has been acted upon; “appropriate engineering controls” such as air filtration aren’t in place; and sufficient personal protective equipment hasn’t been provided.
When schools initially closed, the employees in question weren’t considered essential workers and did their whole job from home. Some tasks were delayed or required more of school administrators, according to the arbitrator.
Because each school is different, and some have more than one clerk, the arbitrator did not recommend a “one-size-fits-all” approach.
“While working remotely one-hundred percent of the time eliminates exposure to the viral hazard in school buildings, there must be a reasonable balance between the remote working arrangement and the CPS operational needs,” the ruling states. “... The presumption then is that the aggrieved employees will be allowed towork remotely at least four days per week unless it can be established that those duties that must be physically completed inperson exceed one regular workday.”
Unless CPS provides the union with information needed to confirm a school’s compliance, the remedy requires CPS to determine which duties absolutely can’ t be performed remotely and how much time they take, and to make a work schedule within three days “keeping in mind the duty to maximize remote work as a protective measure during the pandemic.” The schedules would become effective within seven business days. If an employee takes issue with their schedule, the matter would go before the arbitrator.
Union leaders issued a statement demanding that CPS comply with the ruling immediately.
“Mayor Lightfoot today is urging people across the city to work remotely and avoid all but essential outside activities— but still forcing our school clerks and others to work in unsafe buildings,” said CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates. “This dangerous double standard makes no sense, and is putting Black and Brown women needlessly in harm’s way.”
Many students live in neighborhoods disproportionately affected by the pandemic, said CTU President Jesse Sharkey. “It’s time for CPS to stop dodging its responsibilities, make needed repairs and document those repairs to our families and educators,” he said.
With CPS’ second quarter underway, a surging pandemic and no reopening agreement between CPS and CTU, the union has asked for an independent mediator to get involved. On Wednesday, the district agreed to mediation regarding the impact of its reopening decision, but not over the decision itself.
“The (Chicago Board of Education) has announced its goal to return to inperson instruction for pre-K students and students in cluster programs during the second quarter of this school year,” according to a letter from the district’s law office to a union lawyer. “As you are well aware, decisions to determine the places of instruction, whether remote or in person, are permissive subjects of bargaining ... and the CBE has no obligation to bargain its decision. We have engaged in impact bargaining, including bargaining over health and safety protocols, related to a return to inperson learning and will continue to do so.”