Will cronyism flourish again in San Francisco's city workforce?
In January, leftinsf.com reported that the Committee on Jobs was polling about an initiative that they hoped would go on the November Ballot. Their ultimate goal is to take away Civil Service protections. Just last week, the Examiner reported that the Mayor has announced that he will convene a working group to propose changes to the Civil Service rules. In the article, the Human Resource Director Phil Ginsburg was quoted as arguing that the current Civil Service Rules are archaic, cumbersome and that the City was too highly regulated.
From a management perspective, these Civil Service protections may be cumbersome. From a labor perspective, we have fought hard to ensure that workers are not fired arbitrarily and that workers are promoted based on fairness, not cronyism. For example, the City is talking about taking away seniority bumping rights. And in these budget times when co-workers are being laid off right and left, every worker has the right to be concerned about who their manager might target if not for civil service protections. While Ginsburg sees the laws as archaic, and wants them to be modernized, labor believes that cronyism still exists and without the checks and balances of civil service protections, cronyism will flourish again as it did in the not so distant past. Our City could sink into the old practices of political patronage without these protections and Labor will fight any effort to erode workers’ rights.
The poster boy that the City is using for reform is a Local 790 member who serves as a recreation directer. He was layed off in January. He is very well-liked and after many protests from city residents, the City agreed to find a way to hire him back. The problem is that there are 8 people in front of him that would have to be hired back because they have more seniority. What the City has to remember is that if you get rid of seniority as a mechanism, cronyism will flourish. Managers will pick their favorite employees and friends to hire back after a lay-off. Merit is in they eye of the beholder and nepotism and political patronage will be the rule, not the exception.
The Mayor will be convening “stakeholder” meetings on the Civil Service question over the next month. Labor will do its best to educate the Mayor and the public at large why we have civil service rules and protections and how the erosion of these protections will lead to corruption and patronage. Furthermore, we need to educate the Mayor that there are loopholes in the Civil Service rules that need to be closed that allow for potential cronyism. For example, there has been a longstanding problem with “as needed” and provisional employees that Labor would like to address.
From a management perspective, these Civil Service protections may be cumbersome. From a labor perspective, we have fought hard to ensure that workers are not fired arbitrarily and that workers are promoted based on fairness, not cronyism. For example, the City is talking about taking away seniority bumping rights. And in these budget times when co-workers are being laid off right and left, every worker has the right to be concerned about who their manager might target if not for civil service protections. While Ginsburg sees the laws as archaic, and wants them to be modernized, labor believes that cronyism still exists and without the checks and balances of civil service protections, cronyism will flourish again as it did in the not so distant past. Our City could sink into the old practices of political patronage without these protections and Labor will fight any effort to erode workers’ rights.
The poster boy that the City is using for reform is a Local 790 member who serves as a recreation directer. He was layed off in January. He is very well-liked and after many protests from city residents, the City agreed to find a way to hire him back. The problem is that there are 8 people in front of him that would have to be hired back because they have more seniority. What the City has to remember is that if you get rid of seniority as a mechanism, cronyism will flourish. Managers will pick their favorite employees and friends to hire back after a lay-off. Merit is in they eye of the beholder and nepotism and political patronage will be the rule, not the exception.
The Mayor will be convening “stakeholder” meetings on the Civil Service question over the next month. Labor will do its best to educate the Mayor and the public at large why we have civil service rules and protections and how the erosion of these protections will lead to corruption and patronage. Furthermore, we need to educate the Mayor that there are loopholes in the Civil Service rules that need to be closed that allow for potential cronyism. For example, there has been a longstanding problem with “as needed” and provisional employees that Labor would like to address.
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