Contract and Bylaws

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Contract Settlement Highlights

Contract negotiations commenced on April 2006 and finally resulted in an agreement. Once again bargaining was arduous, but at least resolution was achieved. We were able to bargain the agreement without any substantial take-aways, and made ground in some important areas.

The 2007-2009 agreement will include the following advancements in working conditions and economics:

Article 6 Performance Evaluation– The evaluation process is subject to the grievance process, although the content is not. You may request an Agency mediator be present if there are specific concerns regarding the content.

Article 7 Hours of Work - You will receive time and one-half for all hours worked on a holiday regardless if you are overtime eligible or overtime exempt. The State agreed to allow the accrual of exchange time for any work over 40 hours in a workweek so long as you go through the approval process. The tradeoff for this was to lower to cap to 80 hours maximum accrual unless situations outside of the employee’s control require a larger accrual. We will work with the Agency on developing a liquidation strategy for those who have more than 80 hours. As a part of this agreement we also signed a MOU which will allow us to work with the Agency to streamline the approval process for exchange time. We were also able to bargain in a provision which will allow for you to work an alternative workweek with supervisor approval (we bargained away the requirement that such approval is limited to customer service needs exclusively.)

Article 8 Overtime – We were able to change the language from stating that the employer may grant comp time to requiring the appointing authority to grant comp time for work over 40. You may also continue to choose to receive overtime compensation as opposed to compensatory time off if that is your preference.

Article 13 Sick Leave - We have changed the accrual of sick leave to provide for the accrual after 80 non-overtime hours of work in a month instead of requiring 15 days of service prior to accruing sick time. You can continue to utilize sick leave for extended family bereavement and to supplement the paid bereavement leave in Article 17.

Article 15 FMLA - Worker’s compensation benefits will not run concurrently with FMLA allowing for your use of the 12 weeks of FMLA for other purposes. The State is covering domestic partners to the same extent as spouses for the use of FMLA.

Article 16 Severe and Inclement Weather – the state will allow the use of exchange time to supplement other paid time if you miss work due to severe and inclement weather. In addition, your employer can grant paid time in addition to the one hour of paid time you can receive for late arrival at work due to severe and inclement weather.

Article 17 Misc. Leave - You now can have three paid days, not chargeable to your personal leave time, for bereavement leave for the following family members: parent, sister, brother, parent-in-law, spouse, grandparent, grandchild and child (as well as domestic partner equivalents.)

Article 20 Equipment – We have expanded the list slightly to include any other agreed-upon equipment.

Article 25 Duty Stations – the state will assign vehicles to field employees in accordance with OFM policies and will allow employees to take them home when such use does not violate OFM policies.

Article 31 Grievance Procedure - The State has agreed to pay for the grievant’s attendance at arbitration proceedings. The State agreed to allow the option to request arbitration through FCMS instead of AAA.

Article 38 Union Activities – we preserved your right to attend one annual meeting per year on duty as well as your stewards to attend union training on duty.

Article 41 Compensation – the State agreed to incorporate the 1.6% increase from this biennium as a baseline in your salary ranges. They also agreed to cost of living increases of 3.2% on July 1, 2007 and 2.0% on July 1, 2008. The State will add a new step “L” to the pay range for those who are currently at the top step, providing an additional 2.5% to all those employees who are at the top step. The State will also increase the Research Scientist’s pay by an additional 5%, the ITAS employees by an additional 10% and the lands agent by 2.5% based on comparability or the equity pay lawsuit. The State has agreed to assignment pay of four pay grades while performing low level flight work or chemical immobilization of wildlife.

Article 42 Health Care - The state will continue to contribute 88% of the aggregate premium for health insurance benefits and will provide a one time payment on July 1, 2007 of $756 to each employee who is insurance eligible on June 30, 2006.

NA – Work Related Injuries – No charge to FMLA for any work related injury time loss.

NA – Agency Policy – The State agreed that it will notify the union and bargain with the union prior to making a change to an agency policy which impacts a mandatory subject of bargaining.

GRIEVANCE RESOLUTION: The State agreed to the immediate implementation of the exchange time article providing for accrual after 40 hours in a workweek. They have agreed to pay standby pay to the Oil Spill Team retroactive to July 1, 2005 and to implement a policy where there will be two Oil Spill Team members on standby at all times. We agreed to withdraw our grievances and ULPs.