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Minutes 04-01-05 MINUTES OF THE BLUE COLLAR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING SESSION BETWEEN THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF FIREMEN & OILERS AND THE CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA HELD ON FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2005 AT 3:00 P.M. IN THE UTILITIES CONFERENCE ROOM, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA Present: For the City of Boynton Beach: For NCF&O Jeff Livergood, Public Works Director John Jordan, Assistant Director of Human Resources Michael Pawelczyk, Assistant City Attorney Sharon Munley, Trustee, Local 1227 Jeff Mark, Union Steward Don Roberts, Union Steward Rick Smith, Union Steward Mike Taylor, Union Steward Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 3:12 p.m. and a sign in sheet was circulated. Ms. Munley distributed the latest Union counterproposal. Review of Articles The Union has agreed to accept the following Articles: Article 3 - Article 4 - Article 33 - Article 38 - Rights of Employees Management's Rights Leave of Absence Safety & Health The Union is asking that the following Articles remain status quo: Article 16 - Article 17 - Article 19 - Article 23 - Article 29 - Article 40 - Article 42 - Article 50 - Article 52 - Work Breaks Compensatory Time Promotion, Reclassification & Transfers & Demotions Emergency Pay Policy Bonus Hours & Bonus Increases Uniforms Personnel Files Maintenance of Conditions Collateral Documents Meeting Minutes NCF&O Blue Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida April 1 , 2005 Union's Counter proposal for the following Articles: Article 8 - Union Representation The Union would be willing to collect hours from members on a voluntary basis at the time of ratification of the agreement and the City would match those hours. The hours would be used for activities set out in Article 8.4. This would free the City from having to give the initial 200 hours that the City previously gave. Exemption from the Union's time pool hours and using City time would be issues set out in Article 8.3. Those issues would be collective bargaining and other items the Stewards have done in a pay status. Members of the collective bargaining agreement would be requested to donate time from vacation, sick or compensation to fund the pool. The amount of time each member designates would be taken for each year of the contract. The City would match these hours each year. The hours in the pool as of this date, plus donated hours, would rollover every year. The Union is opposed to having Stewards placed in a non-paid status or use their own time to do this kind of work. Article 9 - Collective Bargaining Article 8.2 (should be 9.2) Collective Bargaining, under the Union's proposal, would be exempt from using time pool hours for this purpose. Article 10 - Union Time Pool Mr. Livergood noted the City made an initial proposal to reduce the number of stewards for collective bargaining from 8 to 2. Mr. Livergood inquired if the Union would be receptive to limiting the number of people involved in collective bargaining, if the City moved closer to the Union's proposal? Ms. Munley would have to speak with the stewards before responding; however, she did not think they would go along with this. Ms. Munley pointed out under Duration, the Union will be seeking a 3-year contract and if the contract were reopened, it would only be for one article. Therefore, a great amount of collective bargaining would not be involved. The City's language in Article 10.3 and 10.4 was left unchanged. Article 12 - Grievance and Arbitration Procedures The Union put the language in Article 12.1 back into the agreement. Article 12.3 provides that the Union and the City would create the grievance form. Originally, the City prepared the form. 2 Meeting Minutes NCF&O Blue Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida April 1, 2005 With regard to the grievance tracking process, Ms. Munley spoke to City Attorney Cherof regarding this. If a grievance were filed, it could go to a central location, and he recommended the Clerk's Office for tracking purposes. Ms. Munley was agreeable with this, and Attorney Cherof said he would provide her language to cover this. In Article 12.1, Mr. Livergood noted the language reading "Issues or disputes which are not grievances as so defined shall not be subject to arbitration, but may be processed through the grievance procedure only after all attempts to resolve the dispute through labor management meetings has failed" was put back in. Mr. Livergood asked why the Union felt this language was necessary. Ms. Munley said this language has always been in the contract, and it has always worked well. She stated they needed an opportunity to discuss things that are wrong and this article gives them the opportunity to do so. Mr. Smith felt this language might be useful now that there is a new Director in the Utilities Department. Article 12.4.1 (Step 1). The language "during regular working hours (8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.)" was deleted because there may be people who work hours other than the regular 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Ms. Munley felt they should be allowed to fax a grievance when it is available and there should be no time restriction. The language in the second paragraph of that Article dealing with meeting with the Department Director was put back in. The Union feels that this language is needed and the Department Director will have 11 days to respond in writing to the employee with a decision. Attorney Pawelczyk, from a legal standpoint, did not care when the grievance was hand delivered or faxed. The only time it would matter is when they would have to count days and if the grievance were delivered at 5:01 p.m., it would be the next business day. Mr. Livergood stated the first day would begin on the day he receives the grievance. Mr. Livergood explained that the 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. was stated to allow the City to receive and stamp the grievance. He recommended changing the language to read "during regular office hours." In Paragraph D. of Article 12.4.1, the Union wants the signature of the aggrieved employee and/or Union representative on the written grievance. Ms. Munley explained it is the Union representative's job to police and protect the collective bargaining agreement. In the second paragraph of Article 12.4.2 (Step 2), language has been added that the Union Representative, in addition to the employee, would be contacted. In the second paragraph of Article 12.4.3, the Union changed 90 days to 180 days. Ms. Munley felt the arbitrator might need this amount of time. 3 Meeting Minutes NCF&O Blue Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida April 1, 2005 Ms. Munley added the following language to this article: "If an arbitrator selected by one of the parties becomes permanently unavailable, that party shall be allowed to select a replacement arbitrator and that arbitrator shall be named in the list alphabetically." Attorney Pawelczyk noted the City had deleted the arbitrators' names and asked why they were put back in. Ms. Munley responded she put them back in. They added language to Article 12.5, second paragraph, that states when an arbitrator has been selected by the parties, the City would have 10 days from receipt of notice of referral to arbitration to raise arbitrability as a defense. In that same paragraph, the Union struck the last two sentences because the City already would be going before an arbitrator in a meeting to state the issue is not arbitrable. If the City loses this argument, the City wants the opportunity to go to court and the Union is not in favor of allowing this. Mr. Jordan presented the City's revised language for Article 12 (Grievance and Arbitration Procedures). Attorney Pawelczyk stated the City made changes to Article 12.5 and those changes are set out in a different font. Attorney Pawelczyk stated the revision to this Article reads as follows: "When an arbitrator has been selected by the parties, the City has 10 days from receipt of notice of appointment to raise arbitrability as a defense. If arbitrability is raised by the City, the issue of arbitrability shall be determined by the arbitrator no less than thirty (30) days prior to the commencement of an arbitration hearing on the grievance itself, if the matter is arbitrable." Ms. Munley was opposed to this language and had spoken with the Union's attorney regarding this process. Ms. Munley did agree to present the City's revised language to the Union attorney. Article 13 - Disciplinary Action The Union would like the current language to remain status quo. The Union also wants to keep the disciplinary proposal that was furnished to the City. Article 14 - Basic Work Week and Overtime In Article 14.2, the City's language has been used for "employees who normally perform their job during their regular work hours." Ms. Munley put the language back in that reads, 4 Meeting Minutes NCF&O Blue Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida April 1, 2005 "In the event any employee is required to work approved overtime, the City shall not manipulate the employee's work schedule, vacation or regular shift to offset the payment of overtime hours worked in a work week." The Union attorney furnished this language to Ms. Munley this afternoon. In Article 14.6, they put the language back in and added "comp time" for purposes of compensation of overtime. This had been previously discussed and Ms. Munley thought that the City had agreed to this. Mr. Livergood responded that the City asked several times whether the Union would allow all the proposed language to remain the same, but sick days would be eliminated for computation of overtime purposes. Ms. Munley responded they would be willing to consider this and will discuss it. Article 15 - Task Assignment - Solid Waste The Union put the previous language back in on the first page. The Union wants make- up days to be Wednesdays and the task would be paid at time and one-half. Members are opposed to working on Saturday. Mr. Taylor stated that residents have informed him they do not want trash pick-ups on Saturday. Ms. Munley stated a small survey had been done to determine this. Article 18 - Wages The Union did not change any of the City's numbers, but they were adjusted. The Union is accepting the 2% market adjustment on October 1, 2004. The Union is proposing the following for Employees' Performance Evaluation Merit Wage Adjustments as of April 1 , 2005: ~ A score of less than one - no merit increase ~ A score of 1 to 1 .99 would receive a merit increase equal to the score of their performance appraisal ~ A score of 2 to 2.99 would receive a 4% merit increase ~ A score of 3 to 3.99 would receive a merit increase of 5% ~ A score of 4 would receive a merit increase of 6% Article 18.1.3 provides that "Employees whose market adjustment or merit increase places them above their salary range shall receive the increases and shall be redlined until the pay plan study is completed and the adjustments are made to bring the employee back into his salary range." Article 18.1.4 provides that within 30 days from the date of ratification of this Agreement, the City and Union would form a committee and begin to meet to review and redevelop the current performance appraisal instrument. 5 Meeting Minutes NCF&O Blue Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida April 1 , 2005 Article 18.1.5 provides the City and Union would re-open this Article to negotiate the wage study for fiscal year 2005/2006. Also, the parties would agree the wage study may be implemented with or without utilizing the provisions of Article 19 that would be determined. Ms. Munley noted Article 19 is the Promotion, Re-class Article that the City wanted to delete. The Union would like this to remain status quo and exempted until the Union determines how they want to proceed with this. The Union wants to keep the language in Article 18.1.6, Section 2, third (a) that allows someone to be re-graded after 60 days. This language should have been put back in. Mr. Livergood pointed out this was discussed at the PBA negotiations today. Their language provides at the end of 60 days, if an employee has not improved their performance, they are subject to termination. Mr. Livergood inquired if the Union would be amenable to language along these lines. Ms. Munley said she would bring this back for discussion. Article 19 - Promotions, Reclassifications, Transfers & Demotions The Union would like to keep the current language status quo. They may be willing to exempt those provisions if they determine to do so after the implementation of the wage study. Article 20 - Standby & Call Back Pay The Union will accept the City's language in Article 20.1 through the language ending with "appropriate for completion of the task." The Union's counter-proposal is as follows: "The employee who is assigned Stand-By duty shall receive the following compensation for each day he/she is on Stand-by duty: $150.00 on weekdays ($30.00 per day for Monday through Friday) $75.00 on weekends ($37.50 per day on Saturday or Sunday) Ms. Munley was not certain on the "stacking" language because it has always been a seven-day assignment. In Article 20.2, the Union added the language back in the second tier of the callback. Article 25 - Sick Leave Personal Leave was put back in. 6 Meeting Minutes NCF&O Blue Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida April 1, 2005 In Article 24.7.2 the language has been changed to read, "Sick leave exceeding 3 consecutive work days requires medical certification within three (3) days of returning to work." Mr. Jordan pointed out that there is no need for an employee to contact the Finance Department with regard to sharing sick leave. This should be done within the employee's own department. Ms. Munley stated employees need to know to whom they should talk when there is a need for shared time. Article 26 - Workers Compensation The proposed language comes from the new contract for the City of West Palm Beach. After seven (7) days when an employee is on workers compensation, the City would supplement their salary for three (3) months in order for that employee to receive their net take-home pay. The language in that contract provides: "At the end of three (3) months, the Risk Manager would review the medical certification from the employee's authorized workers' compensation treating physician for a determination of pay status. If the authorized medical certification justifies temporary total disability, the salary supplement continuation will be granted. If the continuation of the salary supplement is granted, it shall continue at the same rate as defined above for up to an additional three (3) months." After six (6) months, an employee could use their accrued sick and vacation leave. Mr. Jordan noted the City had used three (3) months because if an employee was not granted the additional supplement, they were restricted from doing it for six months. Ms. Munley recommended adding language that states, "When the supplement ends, an employee may." Mr. Jordan was agreeable with this change. Article 28 - Vacation The Union's proposal for Article 28.4 is as follows: "Vacation requests of three (3) shifts or less must be requested and approved or denied prior to the end of the work shift the day the request is made. Vacation requests of four (4) shifts or more must be requested and approved or denied within forty-eight (48) hours of the day the request is made." Mr. Livergood inquired if the Union would agree to language that states, "within two (2) working days of the day the request is made." Ms. Munley was agreeable with this language. With regard to the language that reads, "approved or denied prior to the end of the work shift the day the request is made", Attorney Pawelczyk asked how this would be 7 Meeting Minutes NCF&O Blue Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida April 1, 2005 handled if an employee submitted his request at 4:55 p.m. for the "three (3) shifts or less" request. Ms. Munley assumed employees would request vacation time in the morning. She recommended stating "within one working day" and the other request would be "within two working days." Attorney Pawelczyk agreed to this language. The Language in Article 28.5 is the City's proposal. The Union made a change in the second paragraph to delete the language "docked pay for the time not worked." Ms. Munley did not think an employee should lose pay as well as being subject to disciplinary action. Article 39 - Tool Replacement The Union added language in Paragraph 39.3 that reads, "For all other employees, the City shall provide all necessary tools to those bargaining unit employees required to utilize tools in their service to the City." Paragraph 39.4 has been added to read: "The Union shall appoint three members to the Incident Review Committee; one each from Utilities, Solid Waste and Parks. No member of the Committee found to have a conflict of interest in the outcome of the Committee's review shall be allowed to vote on the matter at hand for which the conflict exists. Bargaining unit members who appear before the incident review Committee shall be covered by the provisions of the Weingarten Act and shall be allowed to have a Union Steward present. " Ms. Munley pointed out members of this Committee that work for a Department that has an incident should not vote because this is a conflict. Also, Ms. Munley stated Union members that appear before the Incident Review Committee should be allowed to have a Union Steward present. Mr. Livergood did not think that this should be in the "Tool Replacement" Article. Mr. Livergood has been informed the Incident Review Committee has been effective and there are Union members serving on that Committee. Ms. Munley noted there was an issue where a Union member was not permitted to have Union representation before the Committee. Mr. Smith stated previously this had been permitted. Mr. Livergood noted there is an appeal process in place for a determination made by the Incident Review Committee. Mr. Jordan pointed out the Incident Review Committee merely determines whether an incident was preventable or non-preventable and does not deal with discipline. Mr. Smith stated the findings of the Incident Review Committee do lead to discipline. Ms. Munley pointed out the Incident Review Committee interrogates people without allowing them proper representation and the answers the employee provides could determine whether this employee would be disciplined. Mr. Jordan pointed out this Committee is a fact-finding Committee. 8 Meeting Minutes NCF&O Blue Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida April 1, 2005 Ms. Munley will move the language dealing with the Incident Review Committee to the Safety Article. Article 47 - Substance Abuse The Union is proposing the following language be added to this Article: "A bargaining unit employee who has been placed in an off-duty status due to a situation covered by this Article, and who has been mandated to EAP or another recuperative program, shall be returned to active duty immediately upon notice from the EAP Counselor or attending physician that the employee is duty ready regardless of the length of or completion of the recuperative program under which the employee has been mandated." Mr. Livergood inquired if the City was obligated to require an employee to go through the EAP process. Attorney Pawelczyk stated part of the City's Drug Free Workplace Program is to provide assistance to employees. Mr. Jordan responded the City is obligated to participate in this program under certain circumstances because DOT has other requirements the City must follow. Mr. Livergood inquired if the Union would agree to language that a second violation of the substance abuse program would result in immediate termination from the City. Mr. Taylor responded this is already stated in the Last Chance Agreement. Mr. Livergood would like the Last Chance Agreement added into the contract so that employees would be aware of it. Mr. Smith felt these issues should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Ms. Munley noted if an employee was receiving treatment, they are protected under ADA. Mr. Jordan stated this only applied under certain circumstances. Mr. Jordan pointed out that AA is not considered a treatment program under ADA. Attorney Pawelczyk stated the City would review the Union's proposed language. Article 51 - Distribution of the Agreement The Union will pay up to $300 to the City to cover the costs of printing and distributing the Union Agreement to all members of the bargaining unit Article 53 - Duration The Union is requesting a three-year agreement and wages would be reopened during the second and third years. The meeting recessed at 4:00 p.m. The meeting reconvened at 4:20 p.m. 9 Meeting Minutes NCF&O Blue Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida April 1, 2005 Mr. Jordan reported the City reviewed the Union's counter-proposals and there are three items the City will not move from their last proposal. Those Articles are: ./ Article 13 (Disciplinary Appeal & Arbitration Procedure); ./ Article 15 (Task); and ./ Article 18 (Wages) Ms. Munley asked for the City's reasoning behind their rejection of Article 18. Since the scores are not available, the City could not do the math. Ms. Munley inquired if the City agreed with everything else that was present and Mr. Jordan stated they did not. With regard to wages, Ms. Munley stated the performance scores would determine how much money it would cost the City for merit increases. Mr. Taylor asked why the City is waffling on the wages. Mr. Jordan stated he presented what he was authorized to offer. Ms. Munley noted the City offered 2, 4 and 6 and the Union is proposing a different formula, using the same numbers. Mr. Livergood stated using the Union's proposal would cost the City more money. He pointed out if an employee received a performance score of 2.5, under the City's proposal they would receive a 3% raise. Under the Union's proposal, that employee would receive a 4% increase. Ms. Munley pointed out that the Special Master for the PBA negotiations is giving the Police a great deal of money, and she is not willing to move on the Union's wage proposal until the City can come back and tell the Union how much more money the Union's proposal would cost compared to the City's proposal. Ms. Munley inquired if the City would have to go back and have another Executive Session to address the Union's proposal. Mr. Jordan stated if they cannot come to terms on the wages, they would be at impasse. Ms. Munley would like the City to cost out the Union's proposal before declaring impasse and to bring a counter-offer back. Ms. Munley asked Mr. Livergood what he did not like about the Task Article. Mr. Livergood responded he did not want his ability to ask employees to work on a Saturday taken away from him. It appears that the parties may be at impasse on this Article. Ms. Munley felt that the parties were at impasse on the Disciplinary Appeal & Arbitration Procedure Article. The Union would not accept the City's language for this Article. Ms. Munley suggested they work on the other Articles to see if they can come to agreement on them and if these three Articles are at impasse, they would handle it accordingly. Recess was declared at 4:26 p.m. The Meeting reconvened at 4:33 p.m. Attorney Pawelczyk stated the City would re-evaluate their position and will notify the Union in writing. The negotiations concluded for the day. 10 Meeting Minutes NCF&O Blue Collar Negotiations Boynton Beach, Florida April 1 , 2005 Adjournment There being no further business, the meeting properly adjourned at 4:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, ,1 '~('(k'~V- Þ - {VL fL~ Barbara M. Madden Recording Secretary (April 5, 2005) 11