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Dear OCEA Member,
As you know, PSU and PSMU members, including members of the PSU and PSMU Executive Committees, and OCEA representatives met with the Probation Department yesterday for several hours to discuss the Transition Plan for Institutional Services presented by the Department. After several hours of discussion, and repeated efforts to obtain the rationale behind decisions proposed by the Department to reassign employees, it became apparent that the Department’s approach was in general arbitrary and that it risked placing employees at the mercy and whim of Department management. OCEA instead proposed that the Department allow employees in job classifications impacted by the transition to rebid for shifts. Department management refused to agree to our request and indicated an unwillingness to change their position. When it became apparent that the two sides were not going to get any closer to an agreement, the Department requested an opportunity to break and meet again this morning.
This morning we reached agreement with the Department on the transition plan. The agreement provides that YGC will implement new shift patterns that include more opportunity for weekends off for employees at YGC. In addition, there will be an increase in the number of open Deputy Juvenile Correctional Officer II shifts available at Juvenile Hall. All Deputy Juvenile Correctional Officers II as well as Auxiliary Staff and Coordinators will bid for shifts as a result of the closures at YGC and staff reductions. All Deputy Juvenile Correctional Officers II at YLA (1 and 2) will bid for shifts in what remains of YLA. All open Juvenile Hall shifts will be posted beginning February 11 and continue through February 17. Bidding for YLA and YGC will be done in-house respectively beginning February 3.
Supervisors at these facilities will have an opportunity to volunteer for assignments at Juvenile Hall. Should the open positions at Juvenile Hall remain unfilled, two Supervisors will be transferred based on County seniority.
Your employee representatives and OCEA responded with one unified voice, and as a result of our efforts, the number of positions identified for layoff have been reduced and Department plans to add executives have been changed. With respect to the Department’s proposed transition plan, we were able to successfully challenge the arbitrary nature of the Department’s proposed transition plan and instead develop a plan that is both more fair and more accommodating to employees in impacted job classifications.
The likelihood of future staff reductions remains a reality due to the condition of the State budget. In the face of this reality we will continue to do all we can, collectively, to prevent any effort by the Department to take advantage of the situation or you.
It is apparent that the united voice of your OCEA team made a difference yesterday and today, and it will make a difference in the weeks and months ahead. This should further our collective resolve to stand together as one union and to fight to advance the interests of you, your families, and your coworkers.
In solidarity,
Lisa Major
OCEA Asst. General Manager
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