03/20/2015 (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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In opposing the County's proposal to reduce leave accruals and payouts, Local 2201 did not attempt to argue at the Special Magistrate hearing that its implementation would result in bargaining unit employees having an insufficient amount of leave. Nor could Local 2201 make such an argument as, under the County's medical leave, annual leave and shift exchange proposals, current bargaining unit employees would still have between 2.5 and 5 months of medical leave, up to 2 months of annual leave, 3 paid Kelly days, 1 paid personal day (day shift), and at least 1 month of shift exchanges, for a total of between 6 and 8.5 months of potential time off each year. Newly hired bargaining unit employees would have up to 1.5 months of medical leave, up to 1.5 months of annual leave, 3 paid Kelly days, 1 paid personal day (day shift), and at least 1 month of shift exchanges, for a total of 4.5 months of potential time off each year. This is clearly a sufficient amount of time off each year. And if that were not enough, unlike most employers, the County allows Local 2201 bargaining unit employees to begin their 3 months (12 weeks) of Family Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"), after they have used all their paid leave, and to receive sick leave donations while on FMLA leave, thus giving Local 2201 bargaining unit employees up to an additional 3 months of leave for illness and injuries that are not duty related (duty - related injuries are covered by workers' compensation). Turning to ¶26.01, a doctor's note is currently required after 3 medical leave occurrences in 90 days to ensure that medical leave is not being abused. While not spelled out in the CBA, a practice has developed whereby multiple consecutive shifts of medical leave are counted as one occurrence. Following this, an employee can call in sick for 10 consecutive shifts, and thereby be out an entire month, but the employee is charged with only 1 occurrence. This is clearly contrary to the spirit and intent embodied by ¶26.01. Moreover, the uncontrolled use of sick leave is problematic as the Division invariably has to pay employees overtime to cover medical leave vacancies, which is causing the Division to exceed its overtime budget. In this regard, overtime expenditures are already $161,000 (65.9%) higher in the first quarter of the current fiscal year than they were the same time last fiscal year. The County, therefore, has proposed to count each full or partial absence as an occurrence for purposes of requiring that the employee submit a doctor's note. Regarding the current ¶26.03, the current Article provides that additional medical leave may be granted to bargaining unit employees by the Emergency Services Director. This provision is outdated as the Emergency Services Director does not determine medical leave. That is a function of County Human Resources in accordance with County policy. As such, the County seeks to delete this outdated language. As to the newly numbered ¶26.05.B, some employees are calling in sick the day they are supposed to return from annual leave; essentially using medical leave to extend their vacations. This is causing the Division overtime. To address this issue, the County has proposed that an employee who calls in sick in conjunction 17 17