You can bank all 11 Holidays!

A brief history of Holidays in the jail.

Prior to January 2000 all Holidays in the jail were worked, and worked at straight time! We began a push in the mid 1990’s to have parity with all other county employees and have an equivalent number of days off.

Sheriff McGowen and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office were sued. Our previous union LELS was decertified and we became Teamsters. Our first Teamsters contract secured the Holidays. This was not without a cost to us. The Sheriff’s Office was concerned about the cost of 11 additional days off (no more then every other county employee) but we gave up the 1.5% inconvenient work schedule pay in Article 3, section 3 of our Agreement to offset this perceived additional cost and get the Holiday benefit. That’s right, we took a 1.5% pay cut to have this.

The contract was very specific, employees who work a designated Holiday “should receive a deferred holiday off for each holiday .” The HCSO under Sheriff McGowan then began to pay us cash equivalent rather then letting us have a deferred holiday off.

A grievance was filed which led to the LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING in our agreement which allowed us to bank up to 24 hours of deferred holiday and the employer to cash out balances over 24 hours.

This LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING is no longer in effect. The Letter states: 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

NO 6/3, NO CAP ON DEFERRED HOLIDAYS OFF!

YOU CAN BANK ALL HOLIDAYS WORKED AS DEFERRED!

Further more they must let you take deferred holidays off within six months of earning them. They cannot cash out a deferred holiday on the books. (Article 11, sec. C)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!