A Brief History of Our Paid Holidays

When I started working at the Hennepin County Jail in 1990 Holidays were worked at straight time, lunches were considered unpaid except for a $600 a year interrupted lunch check, and we owed the Sheriff's Office "payback hours."

In 1994 we initiated a lawsuit against then Hennepin County Sheriff McGowan to get the Holiday benefits already listed in our contract enforced. Our then labor association LELS at first backed us then testified in court against us. The judges ruling was that while we appeared correct in our interpretation of the contract the contract was between Hennepin County and LELS therefore we had no legal standing to challenge it.

We then decertified LELS and organized under Teamsters Local 320 in 1998. Our first Teamster contract recognized our full 8.5 hours worked and gave us enough hours to receive the full Holiday benefit afforded other Hennepin County workers.

The Sheriff's Office then claimed they couldn't afford to give us the Holidays off and Sheriff McGowan cut our days back to 8 hours. This meant our 88 hours for the 11 Holidays got sucked up and we actually had to work an additional 48 hours as "payback" hours. This caused a rift between us and Sheriff McGowan that was never bridged. Through pressure from the Teamsters and member tactics like putting in for overtime at the end of each shift (because there were no shift overlaps) the half hour overlap and Holiday benefit was restored.

The Sheriff's Office next tactic was to cash out the Deferred Holidays rather then giving us the actual days off specified in our Agreement. A grievance was filed and the result was the Letter of Understanding. The Letter of Understanding made it so that Detention Deputies had the choice of either cashing out the Deferred Holiday or banking up to 24 hours of Deferred Holiday. This was a benefit to the Sheriff's Office because they had less time off to cover and a benefit to Detention Deputies who preferred the cash option.

The preface to the Letter of Understanding reads:

LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN
HENNEPIN COUNTY AND
TEAMSTERS LOCAL #320
DETENTION DEPUTY/TELECOMMUNICATOR UNIT

The parties agree to the following interpretation regarding holiday pay under Article 11 for Detention Deputies who are assigned to a 6-3 schedule of 8.5 hour days:

A few pertinent points.

1) The Agreement is between Hennepin County and Teamsters Local 320 NOT the Sheriff's Office.

2) Allowing the Employer to cash out Deferred Holidays rather then giving us the days off is dependant on the 6-3 schedule of 8.5 hour days.

Any variation in these hours or schedule violates the Letter of Understanding and will result in getting the 11 deferred Holidays off per the Agreement.