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Minutes 07-17-07 MINUTES OF THE BLUE COLLAR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING SESSION BETWEEN THE NCF8r.O AND THE CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH HELD ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 2007 AT 1:00 P.M. IN THE FIRE POLICE TRAINING ROOM, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA Present: For the City of Boynton Beach For NCF8r.O Sharyn Goebelt, HR Director Jim Cherof, City Attorney Michael Low, Deputy Utilities Director Bobby Jenkins, Assistant Finance Director Marylee Coyle, Assistant HR Director Bruce Boyens, Florida Public Service Unit of SEIU Shellie Sewell, Esq. Kalem Mahd, U.S., NCF&O Jeff Mark, U.S., NCF&O Mike Osborn, U.S., NCF&O Don Roberts, U.S., NCF&O Absent: Sharon Munley, NCF&O Trustee Sharyn Goebelt, HR Director, opened the bargaining session at 1 :08 p.m. City Attorney Cherof acknowledged receipt of the Union proposal dated May 29, 2007 and the second document, Union Counter Proposal dated July 11, 2007. The working document for the negotiations was the City proposal distributed at the May 29, 2007 meeting, and the revisions would be made in a running line at the footer. The document would be emailed to the Union after each session. The parties agreed that as agreement was reached on each article, they would Tentatively Agree eTA) on the article and date and initial it. It was understood the parties had the right to hold back a tentative agreement if it goes to another article that would be later in the negotiations. Article 1 - Preamble. Once PERC was certified they would reflect the appropriate bargaining unit by title. This article was TA'd subject to the impending name change. Mr. Boyens explained he usually did not TA on articles that did not contain changes. Attorney Cherof explained by doing so, it kept a running total. Article 2 - Recognition. The City agreed to use the Union language for Article 2, Section 2.3 Union Counter Proposal dated 7-11-07. This article was TA'd. 1 Meeting Minutes NCF8r.O Blue Collar Meeting Minutes Boynton Beach, Florida July 17, 2007 Article 3 - Rights of Employees. The Union agreed to the City's proposal for Article 3, Section 3.3. Section 3.4 was discussed and there was agreement to leave Section 3.4 of the Union proposal open. Article 4 - Management Rights. There were no changes to the article and the parties agreed to TA this article. Article 5 - Strikes. Section 5.12 had a spelling change which was to add the word twelve before the number 12. The City had no objections to the Union's spelling changes. Additionally the Union was asked to consider removing this article as it was thought to be redundant with the provisions set out by law. Article 6 - Non-Discrimination. There were no changes to this article and the parties agreed to TA this article. Article 7 - Representation of the City. The Union agreed to the City's proposal. The parties agreed to TA this article. Article 8 - Union Representation. The parties agreed to the City's language in Section 8.4.4. Section 8.6 was on hold and would be revisited. Article 9 - Collective Bargaining. Section 9.2 was on hold and would be revisited. The City caucused for Article 10 at 1:32 p.m. The meeting reconvened at 1 :40 p.m. The City acknowledged the concept of the Union time pool was for individuals designated as representatives so they could engage in Union activity without suffering any loss of pay. Article 8.4 described the representative activity. Collective bargaining was added to the language. Don Roberts left the meeting at 1 :47 p.m. Article 10 - Union Time Pool. 10.1 of both proposals referenced bargaining activity and the City was in agreement with this Section. Attorney Cherof noted Article 9 also addressed collective bargaining. The City agreed to the language in Section 10.7. The City may delay the use of time, but did not agree with the last sentence of this Section. Attorney Cherof suggested the sentence should be 2 Meeting Minutes NCF8r.O Blue Collar Meeting Minutes Boynton Beach, Florida July 17, 2007 moved to Article 8. Section 8.4. Attorney Cherof announced the City agreed to the Union Counter Proposal on everything in the Article except the last sentence in Section 10.7. The Union would provide appropriate language. Don Roberts returned to the meeting at 1:50 p.m. Attorney Cherof proposed language for Section 8.4, after item 4 as "Whenever the City has scheduled a meeting at which a Union Representative is required and that meeting is cancelled, the City will reschedule the meeting as soon as possible." Attorney Cherof will emaillanguage to the Union. The Union caucused at 1:48 p.m. The meeting reconvened at 1:52 p.m. The Union did not agree to the City's proposed 8.4 and indicated when new Section 33.3 is addressed they may want to discuss the Union leave and bargaining then. The City thought if Union time pool hours were used for collective bargaining hours during the day and it exceeded beyond the work schedule, why wouldn't Union time pool hours be used then. The issue had to do with on duty work hours. The Union did not want to use union time pool hours for collective bargaining during working hours. Beyond that was questionable and could be discussed. A draft of Section 10.7 was distributed by the City for the Unions consideration at a later time. Article 33 - Paid Time for Union Activity. The City has bargaining unit members and was not looking to underwrite their activities for fiscal reasons. If the Union wanted to underwrite the cost of its members engaging in union activities, the City did not want to pay for that or lose the productivity in the work day for it. The Union explained the Firefighter's Union allows it and the City allowed it. Attorney Cherof disagreed. The Union explained much of the work to be proposed was in assisting the City and they do underwrite some of it. The Union did not expect the City to pay for the activities, but thought the employees should be able to have time off for certain union positions or activities. The City explained the employees were hired for specific tasks and these activities can be pursued before or after hours. This request could be a leave to take a full time position with the Union. The City explained they have a Leave of Absence Policy and thought issues would arise and be compounded by 3 Meeting Minutes NCF8r.O Blue Collar Meeting Minutes Boynton Beach, Florida July 17, 2007 allowing the matter. Attorney Cherof requested confirmation that the Union was supporting a union employee, just by virtue of their being an employee, could take a year off and come back and resume their position. The Union confirmed that was correct. The City explained the City wants the maximum effort from employee during the business day so they can defend the City to taxpayers and wanted a lean contract. The Union held this Article. Article 11 - Bulletin Boards. The City agreed to the Union version of this Article. Article 12 and 13 - Progressive Discipline and Grievance & Arbitration Procedures erespectively.) The Union wanted to leave both articles as is and had no issues with the spelling changes and cosmetic issues. The parties reviewed the City's version of Article 12. Article 12.2.1 added an apostrophe to the word individuals. Section 12.2.6 Misconduct was reviewed. The Union did not agree to the City's new language in Misconduct 1, "includes but is not limited to mcuns:". There was agreement on the other change which was "and/or". The Union agreed to adding the word "ten" to Misconduct 3. The Union agreed to the changes in the City's version of Serious Misconduct, 3. Section 12.6., Extreme Misconduct, was satisfactory to the Union but they did not agree to the changes in the Notes section of Extreme Misconduct, or in the 1st occurrence section table of Extreme Misconduct. The spelling and grammatical changes to Procedure for Disciplinary Action 4.1 and 4.2 were satisfactory. The changes to Section 12.4.3.1 were agreed on. The changes in 12.5 Types of Disciplinary Action, Section A, were not agreed on. The change to Section 12.5 Suspension without Pay, Section C, was agreed on. The change to Section 12.6, Right to Pre-Determination Hearing would be considered by the Union. Article 13 - Grievance and Arbitration Procedures. This article was not addressed. Article 14 - Basic Work Week and Overtime. The City caucused at 2:27 p.m. The meeting reconvened at 2:31 p.m. The City withdrew its proposal to delete Section 14.5 and would leave it as it was. 4 Meeting Minutes NCF8r.O Blue Collar Meeting Minutes Boynton Beach, Florida July 17, 2007 The City's goal in Section 14.6 was to bring operations in line with the Fair Labor Standards Act as it defined the standard hours worked which was hours actually worked, for the purposes of calculating overtime. The City wanted to carve out the other categories of status that were previously included in the concept of hours worked. This item would be set aside. Article 15 - Task Assignment - Solid Waste The Union caucused at 2:34 p.m. The meeting reconvened at 2:35 p.m. The Union proposed to keep their proposed Section 15.1.6 and wanted to keep the remainder unchanged. Section 15.2.3 was open. Section 15.2.4 was reviewed. The City provided a make-up day, and did not want to pay time and a half for it. The Union employees contended the make up days were normally on their days off, and it was inconvenient to redo the schedule. Additionally employees have other jobs. This section was left open. Article 16 - Work Breaks. The proposed change was rejected by the Union who wanted the status quo. Article 17 - Compensatory Time. The City would check whether any employees had over 80 hours and let the Union know. Article 18 - Wages. The City would not have a wage article until the City analyzed the first budget workshop and until they had a closed door session with the Commission. The first tentative closed door session was scheduled for August 7, 2007. The MGT Study was referenced which was in the White Collar Agreement. There would be more information after the first session. Article 19 - Promotions, Reclassifications, Transfers & Demotions. This article had grammatical and/or changes to it. There were no objections to the changes in Section 19.1.3. Article 19.1.4 had a Union proposal, which would allow promoted Union employees to return to their former position if the new position did not work. The City will review the section change. Section 19.3.2 was discussed. This section applied to lateral transfers. The City will review the section. Section 19.4.1 was agreed on. Section 19.5.1 was held by the Union. Article 20 - Standby & Call Back Pay. The City was trying to institute a fiscally neutral system that was already in use within the non-union employees, to put forward a standard rate of pay for people who were on call and also to change 5 Meeting Minutes NCF8r.O Blue Collar Meeting Minutes Boynton Beach, Florida July 17, 2007 the way they paid call out pay. The present clause was complicated. Between the two provisions, the end result would the same, but it made the calculations easier. The Union explained the Standby Call-Back Pay was a big issue and a lot of time was spent clarifying what is time worked. The FSLA stated individuals who cannot use time as their own personal time is subject to be paid overtime for their time on-call. The Utilities procedure gives a 15 minute time limit to respond which means the employee has to sit at home and wait to respond and can't use their time as their own. The City caucused at 3:01 p.m. The meeting reconvened at 3:14 p.m. The articles tied to the wage articles would not be addressed at this time. The parties referenced other articles about issues not related to money. Article 25 - Sick Leave. The City clarified the Retiree Health Savings eRHS) on page 46 was a plan that employees could put money in pretax dollars into, which would offset cost of medical benefits when retired. This plan was not a viable option in the existing plan, because it presently read that in order to contribute money into it, you had to enroll in the Retiree Health Savings Account during open enrollment. Additionally the benefit had been frozen pending payout to dependents and there had been an IRS challenge to the regulations. There was no further discussion of this Article. A copy of this program would be provided to the Union. Article 23 - Emergency Pay Policy. The City agreed to provide the Emergency Pay Policy Ordinance to the Union. Article 45 - Dues Deduction. Counsel for both sides would review this article and bring it back. Article 31 - Compassionate Leave. This article was a policy issue. Attorney Cherof would receive further direction on it. Article 29 - Bonus Days and Bonus Increases. This article was referenced but not addressed. The Union caucused at 3:24 p.m. The meeting reconvened at 3:28 p.m. 6 Meeting Minutes NCF8r.O Blue Collar Meeting Minutes Boynton Beach, Florida July 17, 2007 The parties agreed the draft agreement was a department draft that would be adopted specifically into the body of the bargaining agreement. Future dates noted were August ih, the closed door session, and August 16th was set for the next meeting date at 8:00 a.m. until noon. There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was closed at 3:33 p.m. (] Cia. uu j . ~ u1JQ(ima'l\ Catherine Ch~ry-Guberman Recording Secretary 7