Bennington teachers and SVSU settle disputes

The Vermont Department of Labor announced this morning that the pay dispute between the Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union (SVSU) and the Vermont-NEA/teachers of SVSU and 5 districts (Shaftsbury, Bennington, North Bennington, Pownal and MAU) was settled late Friday night, March 16th after the parties spent more than seven hours working to find a mutually-acceptable resolution.
At the invitation of the Vermont Department of Labor, the parties were in Montpelier to discuss a complaint that had been filed with the Department’s wage and hour division, which had received a ‘stay’ of the order from the department in order to examine additional facts. After about an hour of discussing the complaint, Labor Commissioner Annie Noonan asked the parties if they had any interest in attempting to resolve the dispute through informal mediation.
‘The parties had each come well-prepared to discuss the issue. Given the fact that there were several complaints were pending, in different stages of litigation, it seemed appropriate to ask if the parties wanted to try to resolve the issues in some type of global settlement. Each side had their key decision-makers present, which was incredibly helpful -- to have had the people in the room with authority to make decisions and settle. It was simply a matter offering a neutral perspective to help sort out the problem, and both sides were quite willing to move forward and resolve these problems for their constituents. The parties were collaborative and positive, and clearly wanted to move past their recent disagreements,’ according to Noonan.
In the settlement, the parties addressed and confirmed the internal method to finalize FY’12 wages and health care premiums for the remainder of the school year; and agreed upon the schedule for health care payments for the FY’13 and FY’14 school year. Included in the settlement is an agreement that all pending litigation will be withdrawn, which includes the wage and hour complaint filed with the Department of Labor; a civil suit in Bennington Superior Court; an unfair labor practice complaint at the Vermont Labor Relations Board; and a grievance filed for arbitration. The parties agreed to submit the necessary paperwork to have all disputes withdrawn by this Friday, March 23rd, and copies will be submitted to the Department of Labor to attach to the agreement the parties reached on Friday night.
‘The representatives from the SVSU, Southwestern Vermont Education Association and Vermont-NEA worked incredibly hard to find a positive resolution,’ Noonan said. ‘They were thoughtful and deliberate in their intent to settle this dispute in a respectful and reasonable way. I think they represented and served their constituents exceptionally well.’
SVSU was represented by Attorney Steve Stitzel, Superintendent Catherine McClure, Chief Finance Officer Rick Pembroke, Personnel Director Marie Shutts, and Sean Marie Oller. The Bennington teachers were represented by SWVEA President Stephannie Peters, SWVEA VP Deb Berard, Bennington teacher Vince Pesce, Vermont-NEA attorney Donna Watts and Vermont-NEA UniServ Director Norman Bartlett.
Vermont Dept of Labor 3.19.2012