Complaint Against Oxford School Board To Be Heard Wednesday

The union representing clerks and secretaries in the Oxford school district will bring a complaint against the district to the state Board of Labor Relations this week.

Council 4 AFSCME filed a complaint in June 2011 saying four school clerks in the district were wronged when their hours were cut in half and their health insurance eliminated.

Council 4 AFSCME Local 1303 – 413 represents school secretaries, clerks and bookkeepers in Oxford.

The Board of Labor Relations will hold a hearing on the complaint at 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 25 at its office in Wethersfield.

Representatives from the Oxford Board of Education and the labor union will present their arguments to the board, then follow up in the next couple of weeks with briefs on the issue.

The board will make a ruling on the complaint at a later date, according to Connecticut Department of Labor spokesman Paul Oates.

The hearing is open to the public.

The Complaint

The Board of Education employs four clerks — one at each of Oxford’s schools — for clerical tasks.

The clerks were full-time union positions, but in 2011 amid budget cuts, the Board of Education decided to reduce the positions to part-time. Making the clerks part-time saves the school district about $100,000 in salary and benefit costs, Board of Education officials said at a meeting in June 2011.

The change essentially removed the four workers from the union, and took away their health insurance, according to the union’s complaint.

The Oxford schools failed to bargain collectively with the Union as to the impact and had direct dealings with bargaining unit members,” the complaint states.

The Oxford Board of Education acted unlawfully and showed complete disregard for a dedicated group of workers who are also Oxford residents,” said Council 4 Staff Representative Victoria Lynn DeFrank, in an e‑mailed press release. We look forward to arguing our case before the State Labor Board and we expect justice will be served.”

Council 4 asks for the Board of Education to allow the four clerks to go back to their original contracted hours. It also asks for the workers to be repaid for their losses.

Interim Oxford Schools Superintendent John Reed declined to comment on the details of the complaint.

The only thing I can say is the oxford school system respects the right of the employee organizations when they disagree with the Board of Education that they have the right to follow appropriate courses of action seeking redress,” Reed said. We’ll cooperate happily with the state Labor Relations board,” Reed said.

Board of Education chairman Paula Guillet also declined to comment on the complaint.

However, Guillet said the Board of Education starts reviewing its budget in February, and will look at whether it can restore the money for the four positions to be full time again.

We don’t have the money in the budget right now,” Guillet said. We will look at it with the new budget.”

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