Union Siblings,
Your bargaining team met with the county for the 7th round of negotiations on 8-24-23. The county provided the following counter proposals to some of our original proposals.
· The county has rejected the union’s proposal to add make up time within the same work week with a maximum of two hours per pay period. The county feels that employees currently can request makeup time from their supervisors. We as workers know this practice varies by region and division.
· The county has also rejected the union’s proposal regarding meal periods and rest periods where the union is demanding penalty pay for missed lunches. The county feels that this is not an issue currently at the districts because there are no circumstances reported to management of missed lunches. We all know that since the implementation on NEMO-Q that many of us have had to take our lunches past the 5 hour mark of our shift because we have supervisors hounding us to take care of clients within 30 minutes of being assigned to us. Please email us when you have had to miss your lunch.
· The county has agreed to the union’s proposal regarding overtime and modifying language to broadcast an all-region solicitation to make overtime available to other regions when one region does not have sufficient volunteers and before supervisors are given overtime to do eligibility work.
· The union’s proposal to expand language regarding nondiscrimination and for the county to provide necessary physical and mental health protections for all protected classes was rejected by the county. The county feels that the current EEO policy addresses workers rights should they feel discriminated against under current protected classes.
· The county also countered the union’s compensation proposal with a three year contract and a 7.5% raise. That’s just a half percent increase from their last proposal of 7%.
The bargaining committee has not replied to these counter proposals. We want to hear your feedback before we reply back. Please email us your questions and concerns.