Maryland union files unfair labor practice claims against the state
Maryland’s largest public employees union filed a series of unfair labor practice complaints Tuesday, claiming state administrators have violated rules on employee surveillance at work and unilaterally changed agreed-upon policies on telework eligibility and shift differentials.
The complaints by members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 3 came as part of a broader appeal to Gov. Wes Moore (D) and state lawmakers for better pay and working conditions at a time when the state, and state agencies, are under stress.
“We’re at a critical time in Maryland when we have an administration in Washington that has made it their mission to go after the public services millions rely on,” said Council 3 President Patrick Moran, backed by more than two dozen state workers at a Baltimore news conference.
“We need a state government and state leadership that are standing up to those threats and charting a different course. Standing with public employees means not committing unfair labor practices,” he said.
A spokesperson for the governor said Tuesday afternoon that the Moore administration has continued to support public servants while also managing a “historic budget crisis as Maryland continues to face unprecedented attacks from the federal administration.”
“From day one, Gov. Moore has consistently stood up for Maryland’s workers, making clear that supporting labor and protecting our workforce are central to this administration’s work,” said Rhyan Lake, the spokesperson.
“Each year, he has reaffirmed that commitment to public servants and organized labor, despite ongoing budget constraints, the state and the union have reached agreements to continue annual increases. The governor will continue to work with our labor partners to ensure our workers are protected,” Lake said.
But in separate filings with the state’s Public Employee Labor Relations Board filed Tuesday, the union said the administration has fallen short in several areas.
The first complaint claims the Department of Budget and Management violated shift differential language in the the union’s current collective bargaining agreement, which runs through Dec. 31, 2026. The union said that agreement requires the state to pay an additional $1 an hour to any union member who works an overnight shift, but that the department last week that it had developed a list of job classifications that would qualify for the differential.
“The announcement reveals DBM’s intention to – contrary to the agreement – selectively award shift differential pay to only certain classifications and employees in its discretion,” read the complaint.
The second complaint, also filed against DBM, claims the department is refusing to provide a list of union members wh0 are eligible for telework — as it has in the past — or track those who are taking it, making it impossible for the union to continue to negotiate the issue. The agency also said telework “agreements are a management right,” according to the complaint and the existing telework agreement”only requires OPSB [the Office of Personnel Services and Benefits] meet and discuss telework designations” with the union.
Finally, the union complained that the collective bargaining agreement makes clear that video surveillance in the workplace may be used “solely for security purposes,” but that the Maryland Department of Health is using it to track “employees in the moment-to-moment performance of their duties.”
The complaint cites cases where nurses and other workers at the Thomas B. Finan Center in Cumberland were monitored as they prepared and delivered medications, to see how long they washed their hands or if they were using personal protective equipment. In one case, a supervisor texted workers to shift their positions in a room so the camera could better see their performance.
Such monitoring also “pervades” at Springfield Hospital Center in Eldersburg, Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup, Eastern Shore Hospital Center in Cambridge, the RICA-Baltimore in the city and Spring Grove Hospital Center in Catonsville, the complaint said.
All three complaints were filed with the state’s Public Employees Relations Board. Union members said these types of filings are “very rare.”
The charges come at a time when “state services are in crisis,” according to union members, who pointed to a lack of beds at local hospitals, assaults on staff at correctional facilities and staffing shortages that affect the overall quality of work.
Moran said average turnover in state government reached 409 employees per month in August. And the state’s “voluntary separation program” announced this summer exacerbated staffing and public service challenges.
Union members have expressed concerns about working conditions at least since last year, after Legionella bacteria were discovered in the water at State Center. Earlier this year, AFSCME and other labor unions, along with family and friends of slain Parole Officer Davis Martinez pushed for stronger worker protections, which were enacted in May in the Davis Martinez Public Employee Safety and Health Act.
On Tuesday, union members called on state officials to work with the union to assess cost-saving measures that will not only hire and retain workers, but also keep them and the public safe.
“We are ready, and we have been ready, to partner with the state on how to cut costs in a real, sustainable way that doesn’t harm state employees, state services and Maryland’s working families,” said Cherrish Vick, a family services case worker for 17 years and AFSCME Maryland’s secretary treasurer. “We cannot do our work if our government does not have our back, and that looks like acting as a partner, working with us on cost savings and paying state workers what we deserve.”