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Minutes 09-23-09 MINUTES OF THE WHITE COLLAR BARGAINING SESSION BETWEEN THE SEIU FLORIDA PUBLIC SERVICES UNION, CTW, CLC AND THE CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH HELD IN THE ENGINEERING CONFERENCE ROOM, SECOND FLOOR, WEST WING, AT 9:00 A.M. ON SEPTEMBER 23, 2009, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA PRESENT: For the City of Boynton Beach For SEIU Sharyn Goebelt, Human Resources Director Carl Booth, SEIU Lori LaVerriere, Assistant City Manager Rob Eichorst, SEIU Marylee Coyle, Assistant Human Resources Director Skip Lewis, SEIU Tim Howard, Assistant Finance Director Vicki Lloyd, SEIU Michael Low, Deputy Director of Utilities Operations Sharyn Goebelt, Human Resources Director, opened the bargaining session at 9:00 a.m. Self-introductions were made. In reviewing the articles TA'd (tentatively agreed to), Ms. Goebelt became aware of several issues she wished to bring to the attention of the parties. In Article 13, '"Grievance Procedures," the "selection of arbitrators" should appear before the "discussion of the arbitrators'' timeframe. As there was no objection, the wording would be appropriately relocated. Another issue pertained to the use of the term "days." As employees worked a variety of hours from four 10-hour days to three 12- hour days, the City referenced the term "day" to indicate Monday through Friday, exclusive of holidays. Ms. Goebelt ensured everyone was in agreement with the City's timeline. There was no objection and as such, the wording would remain as is. The remaining issue pertained to Article 41, "Dues Deduction." It was agreed the name on the "Notice to the City and Union Authorization for Dues Deduction/Continuation of Union Dues" would be corrected and the reference to "Social Security No." would be eliminated after "Job Title." As such, the Article would remain TA'd. The City had previously offered a package for Articles 4, 9 and 10. For Article 4, "Management Rights," the City would be willing to delete the language in 4.1.16: "To implement at the discretion of the City, any new policy City-wide." For Article 9, "Collective Bargaining Rights," the City proposed to add language in subparagraph 9.2 agreeing to allow three stewards to participate in bargaining while on City time. However, for Article 10,"Union Time Pool," the City would not agree to match the hours, and as such, asked that this language be stricken. The City also requested 10.1 be edited, as provided in the City's initial proposal, to provide that bargaining 1 Meeting Minutes SEIU White Collar Bargaining Session Boynton Beach, Florida September 23, 2009 unit members must maintain at east 120 hours of accrued time in order to fund the Time Pool and that a list of those employees donating to the Time Pool would be maintained by the Union, with a copy provided to the City Manager, Human Resources Director and Finance Director. It was the intent of Human Resources to become more involved in the tracking of time donated. The Union caucused at 9:09 a.m. The bargaining session reconvened at 9:33 a.m. The Union countered to the City's package for Articles 4, 9 and 10 as follows: The Union agreed to Article 4; wished to return to the City's initial proposal for two (rather than three) stewards in Article 9, and wished to retain the 50% match in Article 10. The City would caucus on the Union's counter. With regard to Article 12, "Progressive Discipline," for 12.2.6, the City would agree to remove the phrase "written reprimands." The verbiage would then read, "Verbal and written counseling will not be subject to administrative review…". The City was firm with the language in 12.2.7 pertaining to prior discipline. The Union countered by striking the following language: "…but not all prior discipline shall be given the same weight. By way of example: The older a discipline, the less its weight.", and adding the following: "Discipline older that 24 months may only be reviewed and not used for progressive discipline." The City would review the Union's counter proposal. Under "Misconduct" 1., the City agreed to strike "off the job." In #4, the City agreed to strike "documented failure of a supervisor to perform duties required of supervisory employees including recommending and/or taking of disciplinary actions when necessary." In the first chart, in the first occurrence, the City agreed to add "written" before "counseling." Under "Serious Misconduct", 3b, the City agreed to add "30 minutes before shift start time" as the time for members to call in. Under 4b, the City amended the language to read as follows: "Refusal to perform assigned duties and responsibilities." In the second paragraph Under "Procedure for Disciplinary Action," the following language would be added: "Verbal counseling and written counseling would not be subject to administrative review by Human Resources." The following language would be added at the end of 12.4.3.3: "Verbal warning or other instructive verbal communication will not constitute discipline and an employee is 2 Meeting Minutes SEIU White Collar Bargaining Session Boynton Beach, Florida September 23, 2009 not entitled to union representation when management is taking such action. Verbal warning or other instructive verbal communication may be used to establish that an employee knew or should have known that performance, work habits and behavior is not appropriate." In 12.5, "Types of Disciplinary Action," in Paragraph A, "Written Counseling," the City agreed to add the word "written" four times pursuant to the Union's request. In Paragraph B, "Written Reprimand," the City agreed to edit the language as follows: "Written reprimands shall be signed by the employee to acknowledge receipt and forwarded to the immediate supervisor and the management witness and forwarded to Human Resources…". "Such signature does not constitute agreement with the contents." In Paragraph C, "Suspension without Pay," the City struck the following language: "Any time an employee is suspended for discipline, the suspension shall be without pay." C1. was edited by changing "three" to "two working days or less" for an immediate supervisor to issue a suspension without pay. C.1 was also edited such that: "All other suspensions without pay require prior concurrence by Human Resources, review by the City Attorney's office and authorization by the City Manager's office." In 12.6, "Right to Pre-determination Hearing," the language was amended to provide that the City Manager's designee would conduct the hearings. The City also added "Information gathered before, during or after a pre-determination conference constitutes part of the City's investigation on an act of omission that can result in discipline." The City noted the corrected language regarding grievance appeals. The language provided that regular employees could respond to disciplinary actions or suspensions without pay of one workday or less by requesting an administrative review. For more than one workday, the grievance procedure could be utilized. An employee could not grieve a one-day suspension. The City was firm with the addition of the language proposed in "Disposition of Criminal Charges." The City offered a package for Articles 18, "Standby and Call Back Pay," and 26, "Vacation." In Article 18, the City would agree to add the following language to 18.2: "An employee may be assigned to or paid for standby if they work a minimum of four hours on that day they are available. Crime Scene Technicians may be assigned to or paid for standby if they are scheduled to be on a leave status for the entire shift if they are available." The City also agreed to add 18.5 to accommodate the Union's proposal. However, in lieu of the reference to "Police Department employees," the City would agree to refer to "Crime Scene and Community Service employees who have been instructed to remain on standby for court appearances…" together with the language proposed by the Union regarding pay for off-duty hours. The City noted a verbal agreement had been reached on 26.5.1 ("Vacation") to convert 90 hours of emergency 3 Meeting Minutes SEIU White Collar Bargaining Session Boynton Beach, Florida September 23, 2009 cash-in to 80, for conversions to be done in eight-hour increments and for vacation "days" to be changed to vacation "hours." In 26.6, the Union believed it was verbally agreed that requests for emergency leave would be requested pursuant to Article 25.1 (corrected to 23.1 later in the meeting) of the Agreement. With regard to 26.8, the City was firm with not adding the 40 hours for non-sworn Police Department personnel. The Union had countered with 32 hours. The City could not agree to any additional vacation time as this was an economic issue. A verbal agreement had been reached on Article 27, "Bonus Days" which was changed to "Bonus Hours," and the parties were prepared to TA (tentatively agree) on this Article. Subparagraph 27.2.1 was amended to read, "All full-time City employees covered by the policy are eligible to receive a bonus of eight hours for continuous attendance at work every four months, October through January, February though May and June through September when the employee has not used sick time nor has been absent from work or on leave other than those paid leave categories recognized in this document." Subparagraph 27.2.2 was amended by changing "days" to "hours." The parties agreed to TA on these subparagraphs. The City proposed to combine Articles 29, "Compassionate Leave," and 31, "Leave of Absence," as a package. For Compassionate Leave, the City was willing to add back the 40 hours leave for out-of-state interments. For Leave of Absence, the City agreed to strike 31.1 approving up to an additional six months leave without pay, but could not agree to two 80-hour Union leaves. The City and the Union caucused at 9:52 a.m. The bargaining session reconvened at 10:25 a.m. The City noted the Union had previously countered to the City's package for Articles 4, 9 and 10. The City had no objection to removing the language in Article 4 as discussed and would agree to allow two or three stewards. However, the City was not willing to retain the language in Article 10 pertaining to the 50% match to the Union Time Pool, as this was an economic issue. With regard to Article 12, the City would agree to the Union's proposal, but would change the period to 36 months. The City agreed to the remainder of the Union's proposal and was prepared to TA (tentatively agree). The Union would caucus on this Article. With regard to the City's package of Articles 18, "Standby and Call Back Pay" and 26, "Vacation," the parties had previously discussed the changes agreed to by the City for Article 18. With regard to Article 26.6, the City was firm with 24 hours of emergency 4 Meeting Minutes SEIU White Collar Bargaining Session Boynton Beach, Florida September 23, 2009 vacation leave, but did add "Employees shall make such a request in accordance with the applicable, published call-in procedure outlined in Article 23.1 of this Agreement. If at work, an employee is notified of an emergency, they may use emergency vacation not more than four times per fiscal year." While this language had only been verbally requested by the Union, the City was willing to make the change. The Union would discuss the emergency vacation leave. The City was awaiting the Union's comments on the City's proposal for Article 29, "Compassionate Leave" and Article 31, "Leave of Absence" wherein the City agreed to add back in the 40 hours for out-of-state interments, but could not agree to the two 80- hour Union leaves. The Union was in accord and the parties agreed to TA (tentatively agree) on Articles 29 and 31. With regard to Article 18, "Standby and Call Back Pay," in 18.5, "Call Back Pay, the Union had originally proposed the following: "Call back for Police Department personnel is defined as any time a non-sworn Police Department employee is called back into work when he or she is off duty, or when the work item is not continuous with his or her assigned shift." The Union was proposing to go from two hours minimum call back to three hours. Ms. Goebelt noted the City's response was that it could not agree to the proposal. The City agreed to the Union's proposal regarding "Court Time" but would not add back the language pertaining to non-sworn Police Department employees. With regard to the Union's request pertaining to Article 14, "Basic Work Week and Overtime," the City had provided the following language in subparagraph 9: "Employees shall receive two fifteen-minute paid breaks each day," and "Abuse of break time is grounds for progressive discipline." The Article had been TA'd (tentatively agreed to). The Union caucused at 10:34 a.m. The bargaining session reconvened at 10:56 a.m. The Union offered counter-proposals to Articles 4, 9 and 10. The Union could not agree to the City's package and wanted the match of the number of Union Time Pool hours left in. In 12.2.6, the Union agreed to 36 months and the parties were prepared to TA. With regard to the City's package of Articles 18 and 26, Article 18 was acceptable to the Union. However, with regard to Article 26, the Union wished to increase the 24 hours to 32 hours of emergency vacation leave in 26.6. Additionally "Article 25.1" regarding proper call-in procedures was corrected to read "Article 23.1." 5 Meeting Minutes SEIU White Collar Bargaining Session Boynton Beach, Florida September 23, 2009 Mr. Booth noted in Article 41, "Dues Deduction," The reference to $1 per week should be corrected to $2. This would be corrected on the "Notice" form as well. With regard to Article 36, "Safety and Health," previously discussed, the Union had requested the City amend the language to indicate that the Union "shall" participate on the Safety Committee. The previous language provided that the Union "may" participate on the Safety Committee. The City amended the language and the parties were prepared to TA (tentatively agree). The Union also requested reimbursement in the amount of $115. The City would discuss this request. Ms. Goebelt noted the Union had come back at the last meeting with a counter-offer to Article 40, "General Provisions." The City would accept the Union's counter, adding five shirts and the Aussie hats. It was noted by the Union that the employees affected by the terms of 40.7 had expressed concern and sought clarification as to mileage use versus car allowance. The City commented the Union had verbally agreed to this provision at the last meeting. Ms. Goebelt noted in this particular situation, by accepting a car allowance, the employees were acknowledging that they were required to have a car during the day. The City was merely changing the method of reimbursement from a car allowance to mileage. It was never the City's intent to pay any employee mileage to and from work. The City would be willing to amend the section to reflect that the employees would be reimbursed for actual mileage used while traveling on City business and for the mileage to be recorded on a log sheet. The Union could not TA (tentatively agree) at this time. The City would caucus on this issue. The City caucused at 11:09 a.m. The bargaining session reconvened at 11:29 a.m. With regard to Article 36, the City was willing to TA to change the reimbursement amount to $115 as discussed earlier, and was prepared to TA (tentatively agree) to the Article. Pursuant to Ms. Goebelt's request for clarification of Article 26.6, it was explained the Union wished to increase the emergency vacation leave from 24 to 32 hours. With regard to the City's package of Articles 4, 9 and 10, the City was firm and would not agree to match the number of Union Time Pool hours, and as such, wanted the language stricken. It was noted no one had donated any time over the last four years. The City was firm as to Article 18. As to 26.6, the City could not agree to increase the emergency vacation leave to 32 hours as this was a resource issue. 6 Meeting Minutes SEIU White Collar Bargaining Session Boynton Beach, Florida September 23, 2009 With regard to Article 40, "General Provisions," the City amended 40.3 such that the City would accept the Union's counter, adding five shirts, the Aussie hats and the pants. The City had agreed to the written language countered by the Union at the last meeting to accept the automobile allowance in 40.7. Now, however, the Union wished to amend its counter-offer. The City was firm on this issue pursuant to the direction of the City Manager. The Union would caucus on these issues. It was noted Articles 4, 9 and 10 remained on the table. Articles 16, 18, 26, 28, 34, 37, 40, 45 and 52 remained open. The next meeting was scheduled for October 7, 2009 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with the location to be determined. The bargaining session concluded at 11:38 a.m. ~~.Q/ Stephanie D. Kahn Recording Secretary 111808 --J 7