Minutes 11-20-03 MINUTES OF THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING SESSION BETWEEN
THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF FIREMEN & OILERS BLUE COLLAR
WORKERS AND THE CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH, HELD AT 1:30 P.M.
ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2003 IN CONFERENCE ROOM B, CITY HALL,
BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA
Present:
For the City:
Wilfred Hawkins, Assistant City Manager
Arthur Lee, Director of Human Resources
For NCF&O:
Sharon Munley, President of Local 1227
Bob Kruper, Union Steward
Mike Osborn, Union Steward
Don Roberts, Union Steward
Richard Smith, Union Steward
Richard Stone, Union Steward
John Wolcott, Union Steward
Openin~l
Mr. Lee called the meeting to order at 1:50 p.m. A sign in sheet was circulated. Mr. Lee
distributed an updated matrix.
Approval of Minutes of October 30, 2003
This item was not addressed. The Recording Secretary distributed a copy of the
minutes for each person present to use during this meeting.
Review of Status of Neqotiations
Management Rights
Ms. Munley stated that this article needed "just cause."
Seniority & Layoff & Recall
Mr. Lee advised that the City had amended the language in Seniority & Layoff & Recall
section c. to delete "department" after junior and adding "by meeting the requirements
as set forth in the job description" at the end of section c.
Tool Replacement
Mr. Lee indicated that the City had added the Union's language in the last paragraph of
the article as follows: "Fleet and Golf Course Mechanics shall receive an allowance of
$750.00 annually to purchase new tools that are required for the employee to complete
his task. The City shall continue to purchase all required specialty tools and replace
lost, stolen or broken tools at fair market value."
Meeting Minutes
Blue Collar Union Negotiations
Boynton Beach, Florida
November 20, 2003
LongevityBenefit
Mr. Lee stated that the City had added language to coincide with the City's policy, as
previously discussed.
Military Leave
The City added Section 3 to this article, "The City agrees to provide bargaining unit
members those benefits included in the APM Policy No. 06.06.06."
Ms. Munley said that the Union would discuss the revised articles in caucus and if they
agreed, they could be T.A.'d at this meeting.
Mr. Stone inquired whether there would be a session devoted to the entire agreement,
including the T.A.'d articles, where the Union would have the actual language in front of
them for each article, and Mr. Hawkins said this could be done at the end of the
sessions.
Wages
Mr. Stone asked if the City had a wage proposal for the Union. Mr. Hawkins responded
that they did but wanted to brief the new City Commission first about all the negotiations
to date. They hoped to set up an executive session with them in the early part of
December.
Work Breaks
There was some thought that the current contract language was confusing and could be
simplified. The City wanted to give the employees a block of time that each work unit
could use as they saw fit, especially since it was impossible to cover all the variables in
actual practice of the various departments.
A lengthy discussion ensued between the parties, culminating in a handwritten
document crafted by Ms. Munley that she presented to the City for their comment and/or
approval. After the caucus and a brief discussion and one change by the City, the Work
Breaks article was given T.A. by both parties.
Sick Leave Donations
Ms. Munley asked the City why they had crossed out Workers Compensation leave time
from this article and why they were not allowed to donate time to someone using
Workers Compensation time. Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Lee both stated that there were two
different things involved in this. The people on Workers Compensation are getting
payments and the people who are sick are out of sick time and are getting no pay. Mr.
Lee stated that normally, a person would donate sick time to another employee when
Meeting Minutes
Blue Collar Union Negotiations
Boynton Beach, Florida
November 20, 2003
that person had exhausted his or her own leave time. Workers Compensation is
regulated by the State and may not be mixed up with regular sick leave.
Restricted Sick Leave
Ms. Munley questioned the fact that the employee could be put on restricted sick leave
at the sole discretion of the Director or Department Head, saying that this would mean
that she was unable to intercede on someone's behalf. Mr. Hawkins stated that the
Union did not grieve restricted leave now. Ms. Munley understood that, but asked
whether the Department Head or Director might do something to the employee in lieu of
putting them on restricted sick leave. Mr. Hawkins stated that restricted sick leave was
usually one step before discipline or in combination with discipline. It is normally used
before someone gets written up. Ms. Munley said that the intent of this article was that
the Department Head or Director would choose to put or not put someone on restricted
sick leave and/or discipline. Mr. Hawkins agreed. Mr. Hawkins said that patterns of
abuse could be seen and instead of writing someone up, the employee is asked to sign
a document saying that they are on restricted sick leave for the next six months. This
requires them to have a doctor's excuse every time they call in sick. Mr. Lee stated that
anyone in the City that is out for three days must also have a doctor's excuse when they
return to work. Mr. Hawkins said they usually prescribe a period of time for which the
restricted sick leave applies. Ms. Munley referred to the City's proposal where it said
that for the first occasion, the restriction would last for three months; for the second, six
months; and for the third, twelve months. Mr. Hawkins said they were trying to be
specific in order to take some of the discretion out of it and wanted to prescribe a
standard that all Department Heads could use.
Mr. Kruper noted that in some departments, if you miss six days in six months, you are
automatically put on restricted sick leave. Mr. Hawkins stated that this must be a
department policy. He did not really want to have different departments with different
rules and thought there should be one standard and one set of rules for the whole City.
Ms. Munley agreed and also thought that having one standard for the City would help
people to know what the rules were. They might not know, for example, that they can
call in with family sick. She also said that some people might exhaust their sick time due
to circumstances beyond their control and they might not know that they have options
such as FMLA or family sick. Then, if they violate the rules after having all the pertinent
information, they should know that the restricted sick leave policy would come into
effect. She believed it should be put in the contract. She believed that it was important
to educate people about the various options available. She also thought people needed
to be educated to the fact that sick time is not like extra vacation time, but is meant to
be kept for "insurance" for the day when the employee is sick.
Mr. Hawkins agreed that the City and the Union needed to work together to educate
people about their rights under law. He felt the contract was on track as far as
addressing sick leave standards but that issues like when restricted sick leave could be
applied needed to be put in the form of a standard that could be used by every
department. Ms. Munley wanted a comment put in about Family Medical Leave in this
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Meeting Minutes
Blue Collar Union Negotiations
Boynton Beach, Florida
November 20, 2003
article. Mr. Hawkins stated that the City could post the Family Medical Leave Act the
way it now posts information about Harassment.
Mr. Lee stated that the City's sick leave policy was one of the more generous ones
compared to other cities in that the City allows people to use sick time if they need to.
They can also share sick leave by donating it, and the City Manager can extend the
time off up to a period of time. After that, the Family Medical Leave Act could come into
it. He stated that the problem had been the abuse of these policies.
Ms. Munley asked if the City had a dollar figure on what absenteeism costs them. Mr.
Hawkins knew there were national standards that had been developed on what
absenteeism costs business, but the City had not really looked into that. She asked if
people could be encouraged not to take sick time frivolously, and Mr. Hawkins stated
that if a person does not take off any sick time in a quarter, they get an extra vacation
day. She asked if it had helped. One of the stewards commented that he knew people
that now think twice about taking a sick day because they know that if they do not take
any for a quarter, they will be rewarded with an extra vacation day!
Mr. Hawkins thought the article was good and that if he were in the Union's shoes, he
would be trying to make the policy standardized across the City for purposes of fairness.
This would mean that the policies would be applied the same across the Board, and all
Union employees would be treated in exactly the same way, and the City supports that.
Mr. Stone asked if it was still the case that an employee would have to exhaust his or
her sick leave and vacation before FMLA would kick in and Mr. Lee agreed that this is
the City's policy. Ms. Munley asked, then, if this were run concurrently (sick leave and
FML) and what happens to someone who has five or six months of sick leave? Mr. Lee
responded that the employee has a choice and does not have to use his or her sick
time. They could say they wanted to use FML and go on unpaid leave and have their
sick time available when they come back. Ms. Munley asked about using sick leave and
FMLA time concurrently and Mr. Hawkins said that Mr. Lee was considering it, although
he did not see any benefit to doing that. Ms. Munley was not sure it was a good idea.
She said that prior to the FMLA, if an employee had "X" number of weeks of sick leave
in his or her bank, they could use it. Now, with FMLA, a person only has twelve weeks.
They do not get twelve weeks more if it is running concurrently. Mr. Hawkins said you
just get twelve weeks of not using your sick time. Ms. Munley said, "If I had 600 hours
of sick time, I could use all that, then I could have gone on FMLA and my job would
have been safe for another twelve weeks?" Mr. Hawkins stated that there was no
benefit to using sick leave and FMLA at the same time, but a person had the right to do
that under the law and formerly, they did not.
Ms. Munley asked the City to provide her with a list of what the pattem of abuse would
be that would cause a person to be on restricted sick leave. The City will provide this
and was thinking of using Public Works as a model Mr. Kruper said he would bring a
guideline on sick leave to the next meeting that they had agreed to use for pay for
performance.
Meeting Minutes
Blue Collar Union Negotiations
Boynton Beach, Florida
November 20, 2003
Mr. Stone reiterated his point that a person should not have to exhaust all of his or her
sick time before being eligible for the Family Medical leave. Mr. Hawkins said that the
intent of the FMLA was to allow you to use your sick time if you needed more than the
twelve weeks.
The Union declared a caucus at 3:16 p.m. The meeting reconvened at 4:19 p.m.
The Union formally gave T.A. to: Tool Replacement, Longevity, Military Leave,
Seniority & Layoff & Recall, and Leave of Absence.
Unauthorized Absence from Work
Ms. Munley stated that this article was not right yet. She thought that the two kinds of
behavior should be treated separately, i.e. the person who was physically incapable of
contacting the City and the person who just "messed up." In the first instance, the
person would not be separated from the City and in the second example, they would.
Sick Leave Donation
Ms. Munley felt that this could be agreed to if they understood the second paragraph in
the City's proposal of 9/9/03, where the first line ends with "in accordance." In the
contract it was section 6.A.2, and they could not find it in the contract. There is
something missing. Was this a typo? Mr. Lee said it was a typo. Ms. Munley said that if
you look at Section 6 in the contract and then at 2 (there is no A.2), it talks about
extraordinary circumstances or lengthy hospitalizations or critical illnesses. And, this is
why you would give someone sick leave donations in the first place.
Work Breaks
Ms. Munley provided the City with a version of Work Breaks that the Union favored. Mr.
Hawkins asked to change "receive paid time off to "be in a pay status" and the Union
agreed. The City agreed and this item was given T.A.
Sick Leave
Ms. Munley had two problems with this article: 1) the rate at which the sick time
accrues, and 2) the manner in which a person has to call in when sick. The latter should
be consistent and contain definite instructions for the employees.
Ms. Munley noted that the current contract did not have a rate at which sick time would
accrue. She commented that the Firefighters were accruing 5.54 hours every two weeks
and she wanted the same for the Union. Mr. Lee thought this was based on a 48-hour
workweek. Mr. Hawkins will discuss the formula with Finance. The current rate of
accrual for non-firefighters in the City is 3.69 hours per pay period.
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Meeting Minutes
Blue Collar Union Negotiations
Boynton Beach, Florida
November 20, 2003
Wrap-Up
Mr. Lee gave copies of the T.A.'d articles to all in attendance.
The parties decided to meet according to this schedule:
> Tuesday, December 2, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. - Blue Collar
> Wednesday, December 3, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. - White Collar
> Tuesday, December 16, from 9:00 to ? - Blue Collar
> Thursday, December 18, from 9:00 to ?- White Collar
The meeting concluded at 4:47 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Collins
Recording Secretary
(112503)
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