Minutes 02-12-04WHITE COLLAR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING SESSION BETWEEN THE NATIONAL
CONFERENCE OF FIREMEN & OILERS AND THE CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH,
HELD ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2004 AT 9:00 A.M. IN CONFERENCE ROOM
C, WEST WING, CITY HALL, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA
Present
For NCF&O:
Sharon Munley, President, Local 1227
White Collar:
Debbie Lytle, Steward, Utilities
Michael Ricard, Steward, Building Division
For the City:
Wilfred Hawkins, Assistant City Manager
Arthur Lee, Director of Human Resources
John Jordan, Assistant Director of Human Resources
Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 9:30 A.M. and a sign-in sheet was distributed.
Minutes Approval - January 8 and January 14, 2004
There were no changes to the minutes.
Review of Open Articles
The Union provided the City with its revised proposal for each of the remaining open
articles. The City will respond to the Union's proposals at the next meeting. The City
also distributed a document containing the City's responses to various points in the
Union's initial Wage proposal. The City's actual counterproposal will be presented at the
next meeting.
Grievance Procedures
Ms. Munley indicated that a change had been made to Section 4 to show that a
counseling memorandum was the same as a written warning. The rest of the article was
the same as the Union had provided earlier.
The Union proposal asks for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) as
opposed to Mediation, Inc. Although in the current contract, the Union never used this
option because mediators are not the same as arbitrators. Also, the proposal calls for
matters to be heard within thirty days, which would be of benefit to all parties, but
especially the employees. Mr. Hawkins agreed, stating that it would put pressure on
both sides to resolve matters quickly. The expedited arbitration process was discussed
since Mr. Bressner had suggested going straight to arbitration on grievances. The idea
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of establishing an arbitration panel was discussed and the funneling to it of all matters
that would come under arbitration. Ms. Munley stated that this was a common scenario
up North where the panel rotates and both sides select them. It would be less
expensive and quicker to set up such a panel and one of the sides should write up
some language that is mutually agreeable.
Anything beyond verbal warnings or counseling memos could be sent to the arbitration
panel in addition to terminations. Ms. Munley stated that the Union issue at the previous
day's meeting was that the Union had to be able to file a grievance so if there were a
termination, it could be heard here. She stated that filing a grievance was what pushes
it towards the arbitrator. Mr. Hawkins thought that this was just a perfunctory paperwork
issue. Ms. Munley thought it would benefit the Union more. Mr. Hawkins agreed,
stating that in his opinion, this was true due process. He did not have any problem with
it.
Ms. Munley will write some language to include these ideas.
Transfers and Demotions
Ms. Munley stated that transferring to a lower position is the same as accepting a
voluntary demotion, but a person does not lose money unless he is over the maximum
for the new, lower salary scale. If a demotion were the result of punitive action, the
employee would lose money at the same rate, using the same formula, as occurred
when he gained the promotion.
Standby & Call Back
The Union proposal asks for 1 hour of overtime pay for each day or portion thereof that
an employee is assigned Standby beeper duty. This is already happening in the Crime
Scene department. Also, employees placed on Standby shall be assigned a take-home
vehicle appropriate for the completion of the task required of the employee should
he/she be called back to work. Ms. Lytle confirmed that there was understanding on the
point that once an employee is put on Standby status, the Call Back provisions would
come into play when on the call.
Sick Leave
The Union proposal changes the amount of sick leave cash out from 80 to 120 hours.
Also, the Union agreed to the City's proposal that employees may accumulate a
maximum of 1040 sick leave hours; however, the Union proposal calls for unused hours
to be paid out at 100% upon termination of employment with the City. Any accrued but
unused sick leave hours beyond 1040 shall be transferred into the employee's Personal
Leave Bank. Personal Leave hours may be utilized as necessary. Any unused
Personal Leave hours may be cashed in upon termination with the City on a 2 to 1
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basis, or the full value of the hours may be used to purchase health care benefits should
the termination be due to normal or disability retirement.
Ms. Munley inquired whether the City provided health insurance for its retirees. Mr. Lee
responded that the City provided retirees the benefit of obtaining the group rate for
insurance but did not provide the insurance itself.
Ms. Lytle wanted to remove the words "extraordinary circumstances of hardship" from
Section E. She stated that management was allowed to do this for any or no reason at
all, and they could do it annually, not once during the contract. Ms. Munley stated that
this could be discussed and that if somebody had an extraordinary circumstance and
was denied, it would be a grievance. Ms. Lytle said that a person could have more than
one extraordinary circumstance during the term of the agreement. Ms. Munley stated
that she read it that it was not to exceed 120 hours.
The Union proposal put a title on Section 8, "Restricted Sick Leave."
Workers Compensation
The Union proposes that the language in this article be the same as in the existing
contract.
Light Duty
The Union proposes that the language will remain the same as the existing language
with the change that the available work will be within the City and not just within the
Department.
Funeral Leave
The Union proposal originally included "life partner," but this has been eliminated from
its current proposal.
Maintenance of Conditions
The Union proposes to retain the current language on this article.
Holidays
In Section 3, the words "or on the day the holiday is observed"are added after the word
"holiday" in the first sentence. This is in regard to an employee who worked on Sunday,
Christmas, but the City observed Christmas on Monday and so the employee missed
out on the additional pay he would have received.
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Vacation
The amount of cash out for emergencies or extraordinary cases of hardship is increased
from 80 to 120 hours. Also, the cash out of sick time has the words and/or vacation time
after sick in the first sentence. The total combined cash out of sick and/or vacation time
in any year of the contract shall not exceed 120 hours. The employee may take
advantage of this provision once during each year of this Agreement.
Labor Manaqement
Ms. Munley feels that it is important that a Labor/Management Committee be in place.
The words "monthly within thirty day~' were added on line two after "meet." To
overtime costs and standby in the third line was added, "costs and improve working
conditions for bargaining unit employees." The last sentence dealing with meeting to
discuss any problems relating to the changes made in the agreement regarding this
article was stricken entirely. Although it is open for discussion, Ms. Munley stated that
there could be one Labor Management Committee with two white collar and two blue-
collar representatives, or there could be individual blue or white meetings. Mr. Hawkins
suggested, "as needed" for frequency of meeting on this Committee. Another addition to
this article was the statement, "All reclassifications shall be presented to and signed off
on by the Union prior to their implementation."
Wages
The Union wanted to address this article at the end.
Emerqency Pay
The Union proposes that the language in this article will remain the same as the existing
language.
Employees Assigned to Training Duties
This article was part of Basic Work Week but Ms. Munley pulled it out and made it a
separate article because it was that way on the matrix.
Working in a Higher Classification
Ms. Munley said this was also part of Basic Work Week and the language would remain
the same as the existing language.
Certification Pay
Ms. Munley stated that this policy had not been applied fairly. The City said that the
decision of the department head would be final in the matter of getting $500 for each
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certification or license. The Union wants to be able to challenge the department head's
decision if it is negative. Mr. Hawkins said this was fine and that the Union could put in
language with which it felt comfortable. In his opinion, if the department head knows
what the certification or license or course is and signs off on it, then there should be no
question about the payment of this money.
Ms. Munley asked if appropriate licenses and certifications were posted in the individual
departments. Mr. Lee did not think that they were posted, but thought that there should
be a list of acceptable courses, certifications and licenses and that the City should urge
employees to reach for these goals. Mr. Hawkins said that the certifications that would
increase a person's professional capabilities were the ones that the City had to put on a
list so people would be able to ascertain a meaningful career path and means of
advancement. He commented that this had been done in the law enforcement and
firefighting fields for a long time.
The Union expressed a strong need for, and interest in, meaningful career paths for the
white-collar employees. Mr. Hawkins understood and agreed with this and stated that
the City had made strides towards that goal. They had developed a progressive path to
become a supervisor, for example, and hoped to implement the course outline in the
very near future.
Ms. Lytle thought that if a person completed this training and there were no openings in
the supervisory path, the employee should still receive something like an increase in
pay or a $500 bonus initiative. Mr. Hawkins thought that was a very good idea and
stated that the City would look into it.
Mr. Lee reiterated that the Professional Development Department was putting together
professional development programs whereby employees could advance. He agreed
with the comments that had been made thus far about this matter. He explained a pilot
program that was being undertaken as a cooperative effort between representatives
from Utilities and Human Resources to define and improve the career paths for
Equipment Operators. After much mutual effort and communication, the group settled
on having different levels of Equipment Operator based on years of experience, number
of hours on a piece of machinery, certifications, licenses, and similar criteria. The
program is almost in final form, but a compensation scheme has to be incorporated into
it also. The program/process will be presented to the City Manager's Leadership Team
and the Union will be asked to ratify it. Mr. Lee stated that this program should go
Citywide in the various departments. He said that with this process, employees and
supervisors would be able to communicate about performance evaluations and job
advancement.
Ms. Munley thought this was a good thing. She asked that the City spend some time in
2004 considering the clerical jobs that are held primarily by women and the fact that at
present, there is no career path for the clerical workers and no compensation for trying
to improve their skills. The technical male workers, on the other hand, have many
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opportunities to get licenses and certificates for which they receive compensation. Also,
there should be two scales: 1) at expectation is when you come in and do what you
were hired to do; 2) taking courses to improve your ability to serve the City should be
encouraged and compensated, and should be "above expectations." Ms. Munley felt
that the City should start thinking along those lines. Usually, there is very little
opportunity for clerical workers to advance and get the $500 compensation the male,
technical workers receive. There needs to be a career path that is specific to clerical
workers. Mr. Hawkins agreed, and said that the City needed to look at doing that.
Mr. Lee commented that everyone was looking for the fully competent worker. He did
not believe that people should be stuck in clerical jobs, nor kept there because they
were good at it and discouraged from trying to advance.
Mr. Hawkins wanted it to be clear that the City was discussing this on a regular basis
and that this was why they had hired a professional like Ms. Spoerri to handle the
professional development program. He agreed that there needed to be a defined
career path for clerical people also - some kind of "rainbow" to which they could aspire.
Ms. Munley said the opportunities had to be handled fairly and that approvals should be
given to help people advance. They should know what criteria they have to meet to
move from "here" to "there." Even if spaces are not available for promotions, the person
who has developed to the point of being able to handle a higher-level job should "have
their name in."
Mr. Hawkins said that if a person entered into the supervisory career path, for example,
had good evaluations, and was ready to become a supervisor and no job was available
at that level, it might be that they should get some type of benefit for those certifications.
He said the City would continue to work on this.
Ms. Munley questioned whether the Labor/Management team could work on this, and
Mr. Hawkins thought it could help, particularly in the clerical/administrative fields. There
are classes in the Professional Development outline now that clerical people can take to
build their skills and abilities. However, they need to take this a step further. If an
Administrative Assistant wants to become an accountant, that could be identified as a
career path and it could be set up in such a way that the City could work with the
college to get that person in school and offer tuition reimbursement.
Collateral Documents
Ms. Munley said that they all contain working conditions language so this would have to
be something that was ratified and then it could be included.
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Duration
The Union is thinking about a three-year agreement that could be reopened for wages
and one or more other articles in the second and third year. This is open for discussion.
Basic Work Week and Overtime
Ms. Munley believed it contained existing language that was left after she pulled out
everything else like working out of class and training. Section 4 has been modified to
read that: For purposes of overtime computation, vacations, holidays and personal
leave days and the employees' use of sick leave shall be considered as time worked.
Ms. Munley added "holidays" to be made part of the computation for overtime and
personal leave days since they were counter-proposing under the Sick Leave article
that some of those days would be personal leave and right now, sick leave goes to the
computation of overtime."
Pro.qressive Discipline
This article retains the existing language.
Safety and Health
This article includes the shoe allowance for the three-year period and Ms. Munley
believed that Section 2 was "pretty much verbatim" from the blue-collar contract. She
also believed that Section 3 about immunizations contained the existing language.
General Provisions
Ms. Munley explained that this is where she put everything that was not put into
separate articles.
Section 7 contains existing language. People who are required to wear uniforms will get
what they have always gotten. In Section 8, people who are NOT required to wear
uniforms but choose to wear polo shirts with the City's logo, are going to be provided
seven polo shirts on their anniversary date. Seven should be underlined, because she
believed it used to be two. Section 9 contains the Union proposal on the automobile
allowance as proposed initially.
Recruitment and Selection
This contains existing language.
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Wages
Ms. Munley stated that this article was the initial proposal as faxed to the City with the
addition of the first paragraph. This paragraph about reclassifications, upgrades, or
promotions was existing language in the previous contract. The intent is to apply these
various things so that the worker will feel the greater impact. The example was that
somebody was either upgraded or given their raise first and it ended up that if it had
been done a different way, that person would have gotten seven extra cents. Although it
does not sound like a lot of money, it could make a difference over ten years.
In the fourth paragraph, April 1,2003 should read April 1,2004.
Ms. Munley commented that Mike Osborne had given the City a document at the blue
collar meeting the day before about cost of living and it mentioned 2.3% or 2.38%. Mr.
Hawkins agreed that he had received this. Ms. Munley said she did not see it, but the
Union was not suggesting that the market adjustment was about the market. They were
using the City's terminology. They should have just said, "across the board," because
the 5% they were talking about across the board is about correcting the problems that
were experienced over the last performance appraisal, and the increases to the
minimums when they did not have that in the Labor agreement. The Union suggested
that the 5% would clean up all the existing problems between the Union and the City.
Ms. Munley addressed the performance evaluation system, saying that it was not going
to work this year either and from what she was hearing, it was worse than the previous
year. Everyone she had heard from had gotten a worse review this year than last year.
She was hearing it from the white and blue-collar worlds. "Reviewer-type people are
telling some employees that there is no way to get more than a "2" in most of the
categories."
Ms. Munley referred to Ms. Lytle's performance evaluation paperwork and stated that
Ms. Lytle could have no idea from it of what "at expectation" performance would be. It
says things like she is going to "order supplies," but it does not say without errors. It
does not say she is going to reduce the budget by 2% via her supply orders. It does not
give her something she can hang her hat on to exceed your expectations of her. This is
the problem with performance appraisals all over the City. The key to success is locked
in the head of the interviewer and it needs to be defined in the goals and standards of
performance. As an example, she read from Ms. Lytle's evaluation, saying that the job
task, "schedule paperwork for locaters," does not say "and have them there by 8:00
every morning" so she could have them there at 4:30 p.m. the day before they are
needed." There are no guidelines for her to ever get more than "at expectation."
Ms. Munley stated that there was a big problem with the performance evaluations. The
reason the Union had given the City the wage proposal that it did was so that they could
correct what happened last year and work to create a better scenario for future years,
using the City's system. After seeing the presentation, she realized that the system had
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potential, but it was not being done right yet. The Union did not want its people to suffer
as they had in the past, and it appeared to her from her discussions with people about
their pre-evaluations that it was going to be worse this year than last. The Union could
not let that happen. The people look to the Union to help them get a fair shake. Ms.
Lytle commented that even taking the Union out of it, it was not fair to an employee to
be evaluated improperly or differently than other groups.
Ms. Munley mentioned re-classifications, the moving into and out of bargaining units,
and the re-grading of employees, saying that these items had to come before the Union
because wages were a mandatory bargaining subject.
Mr. Ricard stated that the City had not come back with a counter-offer on wages and he
wanted to hear the City's thoughts about it.
Mr. Hawkins stated that they would come back with a formal counter proposal, but he
had supplied the parties with the City's responses to the Union's wage proposal in the
hope that the groundwork for increased understanding could be put in place. The City
agrees that some type of across-the-board is possible. It also agrees that a percentage
is possible for "meets standards," so the City did not have a disagreement on the basis
of the proposal. The problem that the City has is the percentage that was asked for.
The City will come back with a counter percentage, but he was letting the Union know
that it would not be 5%. Mr. Ricard asked when this would be forthcoming, and Mr.
Hawkins stated that it would be given at the next scheduled meeting.
Mr. Hawkins said the City had a lot to think about in that the Union had made clear at
this meeting what the 5% represents, and he wanted to make sure that this was put on
the record so that all the decision-makers could clearly understand what the Union's
reasons were for asking for the 5%. He understood where the Union was coming from,
but he wanted the clarification of the Union's reasons behind the 5% request to be a
matter of record. He wanted all parties on the City's side of the table to understand
where the Union was coming from on wages. He thought it was extremely important that
the Union be given this opportunity to express its reasons for asking for the 5%. The
policy makers have to take a look at the wage issue. He stated that the City would come
back with a proposal that might be close to 5%, but not 5%. Ms. Munley stated that
wages and performance were THE top issues for the employees.
Mr. Ricard stated that the workers were becoming impatient because the contract
negotiations were taking so long. Mr. Hawkins stated that the City had set itself a
deadline to complete the negotiations by the end of February. He complimented Ms.
Munley on the job she had done on addressing all the open issues. The City will come
back with its counters and ideas on some of the proposed language at the next meeting.
Next Meeting:
White Collar Bargaining Unit, February 25 at 9:30 a.m., place
TBD
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Mr. Ricard asked about the term of the contract. Mr. Hawkins said that the City had
given more thought to this and now wanted to do a one-time, one-year contract to give
both sides six months to see how all the changes made in this contract have been
implemented. The parties can come back to the table in a bargaining session at that
time to clean up any discrepancies or things that might not be working. Or, the parties
could just simply say, "everything is working fine - let's talk about a longer term." Mr.
Hawkins felt that having the negotiations in a bargaining setting was preferable to
solving things in the Labor/Management Committee, since it makes everyone more
accountable to work out the kinks and bugs that might be discovered as some of the
new things are implemented. The City also wants to train all its supervisors on the terms
of the contract. Mr. Hawkins did not think that there would be a whole lot of new things
to talk about. He was convinced that any re-negotiating would be cleaning up and
possibly refining functional matters that might not be working well. He did not see that
there would be a necessity for a lot of meetings. Ms. Munley hoped that was true
because she said that she works with other entities where she has a contract in four
meetings or less. Mr. Hawkins thought that next time, that might be the case.
Ms. Munley contended that the white-collar unit would have fewer reasons to make
changes than the blue-collar unit. She stated that the Union would consider a one-year
deal, but she doubted that they would want to re-open as many as four articles. She
asked the City to consider whether it really had to be a one-year contract for the white-
collar unit. Mr. Hawkins said they would continue to talk about it. Mr. Hawkins thought
that the City Manager wanted to "hold their feet to the fire" to get all the kinks and bugs
worked out. In six months, the parties could come back and with prior notice of any
issues that need discussion, be in and out in a couple of meetings with the white-collar
contract. From an accountability standpoint, Mr. Hawkins felt it would be helpful to
maintain these conditions.
The meeting adjourned at 10:45 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Collins
Recording Secretary
(021204)
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