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Arbitrator upholds three-month time limit for placing letters in file

Sep 12, 2008 11:51 AM

An arbitrator ruled in July in the UFT’s favor that a member can file a grievance to remove a letter in his or her file when the letter is written more than three months after the incident it describes.

The language of Article 21A of the contract states that “an incident which has not been reduced to writing within three months of its occurrence, exclusive of the summer vacation period, may not later be added to the file.”

Lawyers for the Department of Education argued that Article 21A5, which forbids grievances regarding letters to file, also prevented a member from grieving such tardy letters, but the arbitrator disagreed and ordered the department to remove the letter at issue from the file of teacher Gail Friedman, the grievant named in the arbitration decision.

“Given that there never was any right to place the letter in the file in the first place, due to its untimeliness, it obviously cannot be kept in the file,” said Scott Buchheit, the arbitrator.

In accordance with changes negotiated in the 2003-07 collective-bargaining agreement, members may remove all letters to the file after three years (unless disciplinary charges occur). As a result, members no longer have an interim right to seek the removal of letters from the file on the basis of inaccuracy or unfairness of the letter. Members have the right to grieve if a letter that has not been attached to disciplinary charges has not been removed from the file after three years.