For more than 20 years Frank Macaluso, a Local 237 maintenance worker at Brooklyn College, and seven of his colleagues did the work their supervisors told them to do even if it meant performing tasks classified as being outside of their title. Last month, after an arbitrator ruled in favor of Local 237’s Out-of-Title Grievance, Macaluso learned he will soon receive approximately $47,000 in back pay from Brooklyn College — the difference between the maintenance worker salary and the higher oiler salary for each of the hours he worked out-of-title.

On the order of Arbitrator Herbert L. Haber, Brooklyn College last month notified Local 237 that it will pay an award of approximately $250,000 to the maintenance workers named on the union’s Improper Practice suit.

“This is a monumental victory for the union. I’m pleased we were able to win a substantial award for our members. This is their reward for hanging tough and for staying in step with their union as we battled CUNY to get them to do the right thing,” said Local 237 President Carl Haynes. “Grievances can and often do take many years to push through the process. And pursuing one through arbitration is time-consuming and expensive. If the case is winnable, nothing will stop us from fighting to the bitter end,” Haynes added.

For Macaluso, the issue goes back to 1981. In addition to doing his maintenance work, Macaluso said he and five other maintenance workers routinely performed duties related to the operation, maintenance and repair of Brooklyn College’s massive heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) systems. This involved regulating and monitoring the flow of high-pressure steam or cold air through a network of pipes and to “steam stations” where it is then converted for heating and cooling the college’s various campus buildings.

“Through the years engineers on the job with us kept asking why are you doing this kind of work? This is an engineer’s work,” Macaluso recalled. Each time, Macaluso said, he would just shrug his shoulders and keep on going. The maintenance workers had been doing the higher-level work for so long it had become a routine part of their schedule.

Then in 2001, maintenance worker Mark Lillie brought the issue to the union’s attention. Local 237 Business Agent Randy Klein said he documented the work the members were being asked to perform and told them they were doing an engineer’s job that paid $10-$12 per hour more than they were making. He urged them to file a grievance. Macaluso said members had been reluctant to file an out-of-title grievance because they “were afraid that there would be repercussions and they would lose their choice positions,” and the little freedom they were routinely granted if they complained. “We had been warned,” he added.

It was Lillie, whose case was settled prior to the arbitration and who was promoted to the higher title of stationary engineer, who initiated the grievance against Brooklyn College in 2001. Local 237 won in arbitration in September 2004. Although Brooklyn College fought the union every step of the way, Local 237 prevailed in its argument that “the maintenance and repair of an HVAC system is specialized work, requiring the different training and additional licenses reserved for the stationary engineer and oiler, titles created to perform that work.”

“We felt we were being taken advantage of. We were promised that the title of oiler would be coming down and if we took the test we would get the promotion, but the test was never given,” Macaluso asserted.

Macaluso’s colleagues — Edward Molyneux, Domedar Bodhoo, Robert Selfridge, Gary Costner, William Forrester, Jay Casserino and Paul Schwasnik — also won awards ranging from approximately $6,000 to $50,000 each.