ALFRED — Officials with the union that represents York County government clerical workers say the next step is arbitration now that county commissioners have denied a grievance over reclassification wages at the Registry of Deeds.

While commissioners at their meeting last week focused on various aspects of the job reclassification, union officials say under the terms of their contract, the reclassification has already taken place and that they’re grieving that their pay had not been increased to reflect the change.

York County Commissioners first heard the grievance in October, but held off making a decision until they heard from Register of Deeds Debra Anderson, indicating they didn’t have a clear picture of how one job there differs significantly from another.

A bump up by one classification would give eight workers a pay raise of about 8.9 percent, for a total impact to the county of about $40,000.

All of the workers in the Registry of Deeds used to perform one job. But following a layoff several years ago, when the remaining workers had to scramble to keep up with the flow of business, employees were crosstrained to do multiple jobs, and now each of them switch jobs each half-day.

According to Maine State Employees Union Local 1297 shop steward Donna Ring, a switch from the former method of job classifications came at the behest of the county several years ago. Previously, employees who felt their jobs had changed would request a desk audit by the county manager. After a negotiation, Ring said, the contract gave the authority to department heads for reclassification.

Anderson said the crosstraining has meant workers are more valuable, and so she approved the reclassification.

Commission Chairman Sallie Chandler pointed out that all of the jobs in the deeds registry carry a Class 4 designation and that she’d heard nothing to indicate why they should be Class 5.

Anderson pointed out that workers in other departments had been reclassified.

Ring said all of the workers had to learn new tasks; she pointed out that the deeds registry budget has decreased 11 percent since 2011, but had a 21 percent increase in revenue. The department is self-supporting, she noted.

Commissioner Marston Lovell suggested Anderson present a list of how the job tasks have been elevated from one class to another.

Money for the reclassification was not included in the budget presented to county commissioners from County Manager Greg Zinser, though Anderson had included the money in her budget request.

Commissioners asked why she hadn’t pressed her case with them at budget time; Anderson said she was out on medical leave during that time period.

“Just because a department head wants to increase we still have to approve it,” said Commissioner Richard Dutremble.

Union officials disagree.

“We worked with the department head, following the contractual procedure,” said Local 1297 President Rachel Sherman. “We were not grieving the reclassification, as that had already been approved. We are grieving the fact that the reclassified employees are not getting paid their wages according to the contract.”

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].