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Minutes 03-17-05 MINUTES OF THE WHITE COLLAR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING SESSION BETWEEN THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF FIREMEN &. OILERS AND THE CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA HELD ON THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2005 AT 1:00 P.M. IN CONFERENCE ROOM B, CITY HALL, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA Present: For the City of Boynton Beach: Jeff Livergood, Public Works Director John Jordan, Assistant Director of Human Resources For NCF&.O: Sharon Munley, Trustee, Local 1227 Jim MacIntyre, Union Steward (White Collar) John Pagliarulo, Union Steward (White Collar) Skip Lewis, Union Steward (White Collar) Call to Order The bargaining session was called to order at 1: 12 p.m. A sign-in sheet was circulated and presented to the Clerk for inclusion with the record of the meeting. Discussion . Union Representation John Jordan pointed out that there was a change in Article 8 relating to grievance hours. Jeff Livergood stated that over the years, the City has supplied a certain number of hours for union grievances. However it is the goal to have employees provide these hours to themselves - whether it is through a collection of hours from its members rather than being funded by the taxpayers. Ms. Munley asked what the police and fire departments do on their contracts for the union time pool and stated that they need to find that out because she will not do anything the other departments are not asked to do. Meeting Minutes NCF&.O White Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida March 17, 2005 Mr. Jordan said that he would print some copies of that contract and provide them to Ms. Munley. Ms. Munley stated that a union member who has to attend a grievance should not be made to pay for it because it is a cost for doing business for the City and they should not have to pay to address the problem with the City by having to put the time in the pool. Mr. Jordan stated that there haven't been any issues with the White Collar. . Collective Bargaining Ms. Munley challenged the change to have only 2 stewards rather than 4 to participate in collective bargaining while on duty. She stated that there are many different departments, and inquired which 2 people can participate in collective bargaining that will be experts in all these departments. Mr. Jordan inquired why they would need 4 stewards present at the meeting, and suggested that Ms. Munley take it back to them, where they can review it, and then make a counter proposal instead of spending time at the debating table. Mr. Livergood stated that since all discussions are White Collar that if members are funding a union time pool, the members who wish to attend negotiating sessions should be unlimited and if they proceed along the lines as proposed, they should not have to hire as many stewards for the negotiating table. . Progressive Discipline Mr. Jordan suggested that the bulleted items under the three areas of Misconduct, Serious Misconduct and Extreme Misconduct go with the PPM. Ms. Munley stated that the point of bringing new PPM articles into the contract was because they wanted to tweak them a bit so they would work better for them. Jim MacIntyre questioned what the employee's rights are if he/she has a manager who is not thrilled with them. Where would the employee do their appeal since the immediate supervisor is the person who would be doing their evaluations every 30 days. 2 Meeting Minutes NCF&O White Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida March 17, 2005 Mr. Jordan stated that there are three 30-day evaluations and they can all be challenged. Mr. MacIntyre stated that it seems like things are never resolved because the employee's point-of-view is not as weighted as management's point-of-view. Mr. Livergood stated that it is different from an employee's perspective and from a department director's perspective. He would expect that if he got a recommendation for termination that he would see a very precise employee performance plan where his department supervisor meets every 30 days, and he would also meet with the employee as well to make sure they were aware of their performance requirements and why they did/did not meet them. There are multiple steps to go through before an employee is terminated and he would make sure that the supervisor does their job. Ms. Munley stated the performance appraisal instrument is no good so why would they give them the right to do this to someone when there are no checks and balances to protect the employee. Mr. MacIntyre pointed out that the appraisal is just based on the supervisor's point-of-view and each person has different point-of-views. Mr. Jordan pointed out that of the evaluations he has seen, there were only two that had negative comments from the employees. . Basic Work Week and Overtime Ms. Munley questioned why they would extract Section 3 to which Mr. Jordan replied that if they changed working conditions they would have to bargain it. Mr. Livergood stated they needed to define working conditions. Ms. Munley responded that anything you can get in trouble for is a working condition like: the way you look, the hours you start work, the time of your lunch, what your uniform is and how it looks. Mr. Jordan asked that instead of striking something completely new, that they just say that items would remain as they are and any changes would need to be bargained. 3 Meeting Minutes NCF&O White Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida March 17, 2005 . Compensatory Time Ms. Munley questioned if the amount one can accrue was changed from sixty to thirty days. Mr. Jordan responded that the time has to be used within 30 days. . Wages Mr. Jordan stated that everyone was present when he made the wage proposal. Ms. Munley stated that they need more information because it was a 0 to 6 percent. She clarified that if you get a score of 2 you get 2. If you get a score of 2.5 you get 3. If you get a score of 3 you get 4. If you get a score of 3.5 you get 5 and if you get a score of 4 you get 6. She stated that no one in the bargaining unit got the 4 score and that people are between 2 and 3 which is 5 percent and they got 6 percent last year so it is not a better wage proposal and is not necessarily better for the employees. · Standby and Call Back Pay Jeff Livergood asked if there were any White Collar on Standby and Call Back Pay. Ms. Munley responded yes - Police and Fire. Jim McIntyre stated there were also a few in Utilities. Ms. Munley stated that last year the Blue Collar and Fire Department got the hour at time and a half any day they were on call and that police always got that benefit (that is where it came from), so why wouldn't they want parity for all people on call. Mr. Livergood questioned the fact that when employees work they are compensated per hour based upon their tenure, their experience, knowledge, etc and that is the reason why there are different wages. Typically an employee that has been in a company longer gets paid more. The issue of Standby Pay is to compensate an employee in recognition that they are needed and it may affect their personal life. He questioned why a person's life gets affected any differently on monetary value based upon what they earn. Also, if all employees don't have personal lives and if it really matters that one makes more money. He stated that lower wage employees have just as much right to a personal life as the higher paid employees, so therefore they should be compensated equally 4 Meeting Minutes NCF&O White Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida March 17, 2005 for the purpose of standing by. He asked why it was different for a two-year employee versus a ten-year employee if you are asking them to standby to come to work. They both have personal lives, so why does the ten year employee get paid more to standby. Ms. Munley answered that the time on the job, knowledge about the job and the level of credentials are what generated a higher pay to begin with, and a higher- level employee has a bigger value than someone with lesser skills, lesser time on the job and lesser credentials. Therefore, the person would get paid more when they are on standby. Mr. Jordan stated that he was looking at the issue as a matter of parity for everyone for his or her personal time and being rewarded the same. He stated that it was not for coming into work but to be available to come into work (Standby) during his or her off-duty time. Asking someone to be available to come in to work when they are not on duty, is something that should be compensated equally. Mr. Livergood stated that there is a change to be made and that would be to take out the words "or within the utility service area". John Pagliarulo asked what constitutes overtime pay and if someone were to go on vacation tomorrow and at 4:30 p.m., leaves work and gets a call to come back to work at 7 p.m. and works for a few hours, what happens to the hours he worked. Mr. MacIntyre informed him that it would not be overtime, that it would be callback. Ms. Munley stated that the callback pay would be time and a half, and it would not be overtime until you have done 40 hours in a workweek. · Employees Assigned To Training Duties Ms. Munley pointed out that there was a TA (Tentative Agreement) on Training Duties and that they could TA on it as well. She stated that basically what it says is that when you are assigned to train you get 5% and they took out the language about incidental training until it is ratified. She stated that they would have a conversation about it when they were finished. . Working In A Higher Class Ms. Munley pointed out that there was a TA on Working in a Higher Class. 5 Meeting Minutes NCF&O White Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida March 17, 2005 · Workers Compensation Ms. Munley stated that Workers Compensation was close to being TA. She questioned if everyone gets the extended 3 months of supplemental salary. Mr. Jordan stated that it was at the discretion of the manager. Mr. Jordan stated that it was changed from 6 to 3 months because if you didn't get the supplemental the employee had to wait 6 months which was not benefiting the employee. Ms. Munley stated that they have to caucus on something this big. · Light Duty There was a TA on light duty and Mr. McIntyre pointed out that it was just basically a change in language and there was no difference. · Vacation Ms. Munley pointed out they had spoken in previous meetings about the time frame for vacation requests and the time frame for an answer on the request; as well as, if it was a request for a couple days or many days or an emergency. She stated that the language needed to be tweaked. She read revised language from Mr. Jordan which stated, "The vacation request of three shifts or less must be requested and approved or denied prior to the end of the work shift, the work day preceding the time requested off". She went on to read, "Vacation requests of four shifts or more must be requested and approved or denied 48 hours prior to the time requested off. Advanced vacation requests, must be approved or denied within 30 days of the date of the request". She pointed out that she had a concern with "Vacation requests of four shifts or more must be requested and approved or denied 48 hours prior to the time requested off". She suggested that it should be 48 hours from the time of the request. She pointed out an example that if someone wanted 4 days of vacation for Thanksgiving they would only get a response 48 hours prior to that time and they would not have enough time for planning. Mr. Jordan intervened, in a case like that, and the person requested today that they needed 4 days for Thanksgiving, they would have 30 days for it to be approved or denied. Ms. Munley pointed out the White Collar does not bid vacation and it is on a first come first serve basis. Skip Lewis questioned the need for 30 days and stated that when an employee requests vacation, the supervisor usually gets back to them before 30 days. Ms. Munley stated that she did not think it was necessary to put 30 days, and offered the suggestion that it should read, "must be requested and approved or 6 Meeting Minutes NCF&O White Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida March 17, 2005 denied within 48 hours of the request rather than saying, "vacation requests of four shifts or more must be requested and approved or denied 48 hours prior to the time requested". Mr. Livergood questioned how they would cover a situation where an employee's vacation was approved and then suddenly 15 people quit or some other situation occurs. Ms. Munley said that employees may not like that, but if there is a situationm, then discretion should be used. · Bonus Days Ms. Munley asked why Article 27.1 was underlined and Mr. Liverpool said it should not be underlined and Mr. Jordan also said there was no change in that article. · Compassionate Leave Ms. Munley pointed out that in Article 29 Section 1, the language was taken out referring to the 5 days out of state funeral leave which had given employees the option to take it in 2 segments. Mr. Pagliarulo asked what would an employee do if for whatever circumstances he/she cannot take 3 consecutive days. Ms. Munley asked if they can take out the word consecutive, but Mr. Livergood stated that there needs to be some restriction there because an employee can come back months later and say that they are having another memorial service. Ms. Munley suggested that they come back to that Article. · Safety and Health Ms. Munley asked Mr. Pagliarulo if he was still on the list from Risk to get safety shoe allowance and he replied yes, and she questioned why they have not given it to him as yet. Ms. Munley stated that there was a Memorandum of Understanding on the Safety and Health Article. There was an expiration date on Section 2 of the said Article (Article 36), so therefore there was an MOU on it, which allows them to move forward. She inquired from Mr. Jordan if he had put in "and will continue to bargain", which her attorney had requested and he responded no. She stated that it will have to go back to her attorney. 7 Meeting Minutes NCF&O White Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida March 17, 2005 · General Provisions Ms. Munley questioned Mr. Jordan as to why he took out the wording that someone can look in his or her file and he responded that it was because everyone can due to the fact that it is the law. Ms. Munley stated that car allowance was now $525.00 and dues deduction remained the same. Jeff Livergood questioned Section 40.3 that read, "shall receive the same number of uniform pieces allocated to them prior to the ratification of the agreement", and asked if it can be reworded to say, "shall receive uniform items as determined by department head". Ms. Munley responded that she was going to distribute an article for uniforms when they were finished, and that Sections 40.3,40.4 and 40.5 have been moved over to that article. · Longevity Benefit Mr. Pagliarulo asked if employees who complete their 50th year and go into the DROP Plan and now complete their 10th year are considered employees since after they go into the DROP Plan they are retired. Mr. Jordan stated that they are presently looking that over because if employees are retired under pension, they have to see if they are in DROP Language because there are a number of different DROP Plans. Ms. Munley stated that she did not think that bargaining unit employees should be excluded from negotiating. She said if there are Bargaining Unit employees who are being asked to sign a contract to waive their benefits under the Collective Bargaining Agreement that there is going to be a big problem. Mr. Jordan stated that is why it was being investigated and that the problem is there are a number of DROP Plans and different variations of contracts over time. Therefore, you may have an employee who could have gone into DROP four and a half years ago and be ready to DROP and you can have another employee who just went into DROP last year, who is in the same group or unit but, there are two different contracts because they have been modified. He said there are multiple opportunities and that is why it is being looked over. · Labor Management Mr. Jordan pointed out that he changed, "joint/labor management committee composed of an equal number of representatives from the union and 8 Meeting Minutes NCF&O White Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida March 17, 2005 management shall meet within 30 days" to, "joint/labor management committee composed of an equal number of representatives from the union and management shall meet within 90 days". Ms. Munley said that she is going to appoint some people to do this. . Uniforms Ms. Munley handed out her proposal for uniforms. She stated that Code Compliance wants to have 7 polo shirts and a jacket every other year. Also, the pants that they get do not fit properly, so they requested $100.00 stipend in order to purchase their own pants, plus $190.00 shoe allowance. She went on to say that they propose the Building Department is allowed the stipend for the steel toed or non-steel toed shoes. Mr. Livergood requested that they take out the words non-steel toed for the Building Department because they are supposed to be safety shoes and Mr. Lewis clarified that non-steel toed option should only be for the Code. Ms. Munley went on to say the Police and Fire Department get all their gear including uniforms and shoes but Mr. MacIntyre corrected her and said that they get uniforms, but the Fire Department is required to buy their own shoes. Ms. Munley then asked that they insert the words Fire Inspectors in the second paragraph so it would read, "Code Compliance Officers and Fire Inspectors shall be provided with a shoe allowance so that they can obtain black..." She stated that she brought the language in from the existing general provisions for the section on Other Employees, and that she put some Blue Collar language in that they must maintain the uniforms properly. She also stated that bargaining unit employees shall not purchase or consume alcoholic beverages while wearing their uniform. She also pointed out that any changes to the number of or style of uniform pieces supplied to bargaining unit members needs to be bargained. MeetinQ Dates · Friday, April 1, 2005 - Time and Place to be announced o 9 Meeting Minutes NCF&O White Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida March 17, 2005 Adjournment There being no further business, the meeting properly adjourned at 3:02 p.m. Respectfully submitted, c~~ Recording Secretary (March 22, 2005) 10