12 Hour Day Update-Meeting With Hennepin County

Today Teamsters business agent Tom Perkins and myself met with Hennepin County Labor Relations about the 12 hour day memo circulated by jail administration. This is being moved up to Bill Peters of Hennepin County. Some points brought up include:

First, Article 10, Section 4 of our Agreement. Reads “For Detention Deputies, worked hours in excess of the assigned work shift of eight (8) or more hours or an averaged eighty (80) hours per payroll period, with the exception of the twelve mandatory training hours for employees on a 6-3 schedule, shall be overtime and compensated at one and one-half (1 1/2) times the employee's base pay rate, or one and one-half (1 1/2) hours compensatory time for each hour worked, subject to the provision that no employee shall be eligible for overtime premium unless prior approval of the overtime work was granted by the Sheriff or his designee.”
* The same article in the Licensed Deputy Agreement has added language to the effect that the Employer retains the right to assign shifts of more then eight hours…That language IS NOT in our contract.

Second is the language relating to our holidays in ARTICLE 3 – DEFINITIONS section 3. It should be remembered that we took a 1.5% pay cut when we entered into the Agreement to get the holiday schedule we now have. It relates to an inconvenient work schedule (i.e. working weekends and holidays). We would expect that 1.5% to be restored. We would also expect to be paid the time and one half holiday premium on all hours worked on holidays.

Third, the shift bid Article 10, sec. 4. You cannot randomly assign people to new permanent 12 hour shifts without a bid. The dates for that bid are February 15th and August 15th.

Fourth, since we are required to dress in a uniform and pick up keys we would consider our shift as starting the minute we entered the locker room and ending when we returned our keys. So a detention deputy would enter the locker room at 6AM, dress, and look up his /her assignment, get keys and travel to their duty station. Once shift relief was there the relieved deputy would then have to travel to the key room and return their keys. This would easily require a half hour of overtime every day.

Fifth, training. Would this also happen on days off? More overtime.

Sixth, Lieutenant Johnson states in his memo that, “Both options are an 84 hour pay period. Agreements between labor and administration would need to be made on how to handle those 4 hours.” Teamsters Local 320 has recently won an arbitration to that effect. The arbitrator’s decision was that those hours are to be paid as overtime.

One of the main contentions is the method by which this is coming about. Our contract states:

Article 2-Recognition, sec 3 states: "The EMPLOYER, in accordance with the provisions of Minnesota Statutes 179A06 agrees not to enter into any agreements covering terms and conditions of employment with members of the bargaining unit under jurisdiction of this AGREEMENT either individually or collectively which in any way conflict with the terms and conditions set forth in this AGREEMENT, except through the certified representative."

The contract is NOT between the Sheriff's Office and the Detention Deputies, it is between Hennepin County Labor Relations and Teamsters Local 320. The proper method is for the employer to approach the county's Labor Relations office, then for Labor Relations to set up meet and confer meetings with the Business Agent of Teamsters Local 320.