NPS - Chapter 296 - Win Gets Higher Rating

If you earn a rating of Exceeded Expectations, you should receive it. That’s at the heart of a grievance NTEU won on behalf of six National Park Service (NPS) employees and new members of Chapter 296 (NPS Headquarters).While on detail in the Grand Canyon, all six received ratings of FullySuccessful. Despite their achievements and narrative comments indicating their performance was above Fully Successful, the employees were later told it was management’s practice not to give ratings any higher than Fully Successful. 

They came to NTEU for help, but first, the union had to determine if it could represent these employees on detail. Based on legal precedent, NTEU found that the employees were covered by the contract and immediately went to bat for them. The union filed a grievance arguing that the appraisals were not performed in a fair and objective manner as the NTEU contract requires.

NPS denied NTEU’s grievance, and the union invoked arbitration. But NPS quickly changed its tune when NTEU submitted an information request for evaluations of all first-year employees while the rating official’s supervisor was in her acting position. The agency agreed to NTEU’s request that the employ-ees’ appraisals be redone by a different management official. The employees’ ratings increased, they got the performance awards they deserved and all six joined the union.

“Chapter 296 successfully stood up for our colleagues and our work resulted in several supervisors being removed because of their abusive actions,” said Rudy D’Alessandro, president of Chapter 296.

“This was an important win because it challenged a blatant disregard for our contract and raised the evaluations of some of the employees involved,” said Chapter 296 steward Karen Mudar, who handled the case.