A federal arbitrator has ordered the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to reinstate 20 faculty and staff members who were terminated during an April 2005 reduction-in-force at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque, N.M. Arbitration hearings were held at the request of the AFT-affiliated Indian Educators Federation (IEF), which represents SIPI faculty and staff and claimed the terminations were a violation of the employees' contract.

"Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute is one of the finest programs in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. SIPI has doubled its enrollment and maintained high levels of education despite repeated and arbitrary budget cuts and staff furloughs," said Patrick Carr, president of the Indian Educators Federation. "The Indian Educators Federation successfully fought this petty political maneuver and will continue to fight others like it because we know they serve no other purpose than to undermine the success of Indian education programs."

Eighteen of the 20 faculty and staff members laid off were American Indians. In his ruling, the arbitrator, Elliot Goldstein, ordered that the employees not only be reinstated to their previous positions, but also receive lost pay and reimbursement of attorney's fees, totaling more than $1 million.

Arbitrator Goldstein called the layoffs "punitive" and found that SIPI used budget woes as a pretext for terminating particular employees. "Something else was going on here too besides a desire to save money," wrote Goldstein in his 123-page decision, issued on Sept. 6.

The arbitrator found that immediately after the layoffs, allegedly made for financial reasons, SIPI hired 14 new staff members at higher salaries—many of whom performed basically the same jobs as those who were laid off. In addition, the arbitrator discovered that two employees were laid off even though their jobs were not abolished, and that a number of the laid-off employees were qualified to perform similar positions created after the layoffs. Also, it appeared that at least one employee was targeted because she was a "gadfly" frequently critical of the school's management. Overall, the arbitrator found that the BIA did not use "a fair and uniform set of procedures" to determine who would be terminated.

"The arbitrators' decision clearly shows that these layoffs were not aimed at creating any educational improvements or implementing any effective, cost-saving changes," said Carr. "Indeed, the BIA has been hiring outside consultants at outrageous costs who provide little benefit to students, instead of relying on the expertise of its own employees, who have a genuine desire to provide high-quality education for all members of the Indian nations."

Arbitrator Goldstein also found that the Indian Educators Federation's claim that the BIA violated the collective bargaining agreement was valid. The BIA breached the contract by failing to give employees 60 days' notice of the layoffs and by failing to assist them in obtaining jobs with other federal agencies. The BIA also violated a contract provision that requires it to waive qualification requirements of the newly created positions for those Indian employees who previously demonstrated the skills and abilities to perform the duties of the new positions. For example, the school's motor vehicle operator was not rehired for a new position that combined motor vehicle operator with custodial duties because he did not have a high school diploma.

SIPI is a two-year institution of higher learning, operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, for Indian students. The Indian Educators Federation and the affected employees were represented in this case by Richard J. Hirn, a Washington, D.C., labor attorney who specializes in civil service law and federal sector labor relations. Susan Sandoval, an IEF field staff employee, was instrumental in handling the grievance procedures.

September 15, 2006