myBurbank received a copy of a letter by the Burbank Teachers Association President, Diana Abasta, that the Association has taken the first step in the grievance process against the District after retroactive wages were not given to teachers during the time frame that was negotiated.
According to the letter, the retroactive raised of 5% for the 2021-22 school year was approved and ratified by the Board of Education on June 2, 2022, at which time they had 60 days to make the payments to the teachers.
On Friday, September 2, the following note was sent to teachers from Abasta:
Dear members:
I know these dog days of summer have added a bit to the stress of the first three weeks. Getting relief from the heat will help. I wanted to let you know that BTA, on our members’ behalf, filed a grievance with BUSD on Wednesday, August 31, 2022 when our retro pay did not come in our August paycheck. As of today, we have not received an acknowledgment. I will keep you posted. Please find some peace and joy this weekend. It is because of unions that we have weekends.
In unity,
Diana
Along with the note was a copy of the letter (below) sent to the District.
Dr. Sarah Niemann, Assistant Superintendent, Human Resources, said in an email response that the delay in getting out the money was due to the District having to wait for the new fiscal year to start, “Board approval for the BTA agreement was 6/2, but we were not able to order the retro until after the new fiscal year. The retro was physically delivered on 8/2/22. The payroll department is working as fast as it can to process the retroactive payments for teachers.
When also asked about the administrator’s retroactive pay, which was also approved, she said that “Management has not received their retroactive payments either.”
We reached out to the Burbank Teachers Association for comment, and they did not respond to the email we sent on Tuesday.
Below is a copy of the letter the Association sent to the District.
