MCPS support staff union advances grievance against district alleging lack of equal summer pay for transferred employees

SEIU Local 500 seeking 5 days of 8-hour work, MCPS counters with 4 days of 7-hour work

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July 2, 2026 11:54 a.m.

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SEIU Local 500, the union representing support staff in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), filed a grievance with the district Friday over concerns with the school system’s involuntary transfer process after the union said the district isn’t providing summer work for employees according to its collective bargaining agreement.  

“The contract language is clear. It states that employees who are involuntarily transferred from a 12-month position to a 10-month position will be offered work commensurate with their 12-month position during the first summer following their transfer,” a letter to SEIU staff from the union’s leadership said Tuesday. “We believe MCPS’s interpretation is inconsistent with both the plain language and the intent of the agreement.”  

The transfer of more than 80 SEIU-represented employees and the grievance from the union comes amid the district cutting hundreds of MCPS positions after the Montgomery County Council passed a fiscal year 2027 budget that included $36 million less than the district requested.  

As a result, the school board made the decision to cut 415 existing and proposed positions to close a budget gap for the coming fiscal year.  

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The board’s decision will result in a loss of about 255 existing positions and 160 newly proposed positions that won’t be filled, according to the list of cuts. 

Many of the existing positions that have been cut – such as social workers, family engagement specialists and pupil personnel workers — provide support to students and families. Some employees are being involuntarily transferred in order to keep MCPS employees in currently vacant positions.  

According to union leadership, commensurate work for the summer would be five, eight-hour days a week.  

In a Monday email to members, SEIU noted that they filed the grievance on Friday and gave MCPS 15 days to correct the issue. If MCPS doesn’t “comply with the contract” by July 21, the union said they would appeal and after, if the district doesn’t comply by Aug. 10, then “we will serve the Board of Education notice that we are requesting outside arbitration to enforce the contract.” 

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Employees who spoke with Bethesda Today raised concerns about their ability to cover costs in their lives due to the issue with summer work and the transfer to a 10-month position. Some shared that they felt like they didn’t have a choice.  

“It’s been very difficult finding jobs outside of MCPS, considering the current economy and the job market,” one MCPS employee facing transfer said. “Once they did give us our assignments within this last month, it’s kind of hard to go job hunting and secure something in two weeks.” 

In response to a Tuesday email from SEIU leadership that encouraged employees to advocate to the school board for commensurate work, MCPS on Wednesday contacted 55 employees affected by the transfer to 10-month assignments, sharing that they would be offering four days of seven-hour work over the summer rather than the five-days of eight hours of work the union is seeking.  

“We can all agree that we wish that we were in better financial standing to have avoided this in the first place,” the letter from MCPS and the Office of Human Resources said. “Unfortunately, we are here and we have to deal with the reality of our current situation. To that end, our team has been working hard to find solutions that are both equitable and affordable.”  

The MCPS letter said the district has limited summer work and funding, which is requiring the reduction of positions in the first place, but said they would offer the work anyway “because it was the right thing to do.”  

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SEIU will continue to move forward with its grievance, according to a Wednesday letter sent in response to the message from MCPS.  

“Union activism has forced MCPS away from their plan A, which was to just ignore the contractual obligation of any summer work for 12-month involuntary transfers,” SEIU Local 500 President Pia Morrison said in the Wednesday email. “While we are happy to see that MCPS is now pushing for its plan B of offering summer-school work to affected employees, we must be clear that they have NOT fulfilled their contractual obligations and so we are continuing our grievance until MCPS makes staff whole.” 

Morrison encouraged employees to accept the job offers while the grievance process moves forward to ensure staff do not go without pay and any future remedy to the grievance “won’t get muddied by a question of whether MCPS fulfilled their obligation of making an offer that employees declined.”  

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine