Arbitration Filed Over Brown/Black Leather

Here we go again. Typical Hennepin County Sheriff's Office logic. Take a grievance settled years ago and decide to break their agreement and also violate the contract.

Of course I'm talking about the brown to black leather uniform switch.

The issue is simple. The Sheriff's Office, as is their right decided to make a uniform change from brown to black leather in 2007.  No one questioned the switch, just how it was to be paid for.

The contract states in Article 32, section 2:

Section 2. If the basic clothing provided by the EMPLOYER is changed in type, color or style by order of the EMPLOYER, the EMPLOYER will bear any replacement cost in excess of $65.00 per calendar year, the employee to be responsible for the first $65.00 of replacement cost.

When told the employees pay only the first $65 and they pay the rest they balked. We grieved it and they settled the grievance in 2007 by stating that employees who were in brown leather could remain in brown leather.

Suddenly in 2014 the few of us still in brown leather are an issue. This also calls into question the integrity of the Sheriff's Office and their willingness to break an agreement. But it's not the first time we've heard them simply say, "We're not interested in doing that anymore."

Well we just filed for arbitration. The Sheriff's Office will now spend thousands of tax payer dollars rather then follow the contract and spend a few hundred. Bravo!

December Update-2014

This is an update for our MNPEA members for December 2014.

Let's start with the elephant in the room. As most of us know Hennepin County claims they overpaid us on the December 5th check so they took hundreds of dollars back from our last check. Hennepin County and Sheriff's Office payroll are chronically bad. We demanded an itemized reason for each person affected, they claim they will provide it. After all, if you're going to take hundreds of dollars from our checks there better be documentation as to why.

A new grievance was filed Friday for another member's screwed up check. They had 8 hours of sick time taken, even though they were at work, last September. After much wrangling Sheriff's payroll stated in writing it would be on the check on December 19th...it was not. Now they say it's too far back for them to fix...county APEX must...typical.

We stewards and our attorney met with Sheriff's Administration and Hennepin County Labor Relations on Friday December 12th. We covered three grievances.

The brown leather grievance....again..What a waste of time to try to make us few remaining in brown leather to switch to black, seven years after agreeing we didn't have too. They say they'll have an answer by the 30th of this month. Our argument is the same, per the contract we will pay the first $65, they pay the rest. It's the "they pay the rest" part they've never liked. 

Article 32, section 2: If the basic clothing provided by the EMPLOYER is changed in type, color or style by order of the EMPLOYER, the EMPLOYER will bear any replacement cost in excess of $65.00 per calendar year, the employee to be responsible for the first $65.00 of replacement cost. 

The weekend shift differential grievance.  Sheriff's payroll says a software glitch caused this to get messed up last June. They say they will fix it. They are asking all of us to check and see if we are missing weekend differential going back to June. If you are, email Dave Rice in payroll, letting him know the dates and you will be reimbursed.

Night shift differential. This has been an ongoing problem. Article 10 of our contract covers this. The Sheriff's Office position is they will only pay nightshifters this for an extension of their shift. For example if you stay over an hour or two wrapping up a report.The Sheriff's Office says if you stay over four hours you're working someone else s shift! Doesn't matter to them if you are forced to stay over...it's someone else's shift in their mind. They usually pay the nightshift differential for two hours or less, they rarely (but sometimes) pay it if you stay over four hours. The only consistency is the inconsistency. 

The Union's contention is that the contract is clear. They are to pay the ENTIRE time worked. This is Article 10 section 8 of the contract:

Compensation under this section will be in addition to the employee's regular salary and will be earned for the entire period worked, provided at least five hours of the shift worked falls on the day for which the additional compensation is being paid. 

One of the stewards and the county are looking at a Memorandum of Understanding regarding this. I disagree. They just signed the contract last September. They agreed to this language. 

It's pretty cheap to not pay someone an extra $.85 an hour for the four hours they must stay over after being up all night! They are arguing over $3.40! 

This is ongoing. If it ends up in arbitration I think we'd win. 

I'd be remiss not to mention that messing with people's money is a bad idea. It's a morale buster. A major bone is that when they short us it takes weeks or months to get reimbursed. When they say we owe them, it's taken out the next check...and that without any documentation other then they said so.

Happy Solstice, Merry Xmas or happy however you celebrate this time of year!

How the Grinch stole Xmas

Imagine your employer informed you that they overpaid you the previous check and were taking hundreds of dollars out of the next. The check before Christmas! They claim they overpaid the FLSA calculations on your last check, the check with your Stability pay (Holiday Bonus). But offer no explanation or proof.

They email you with a number to call if you have any questions.

Questions like:

Can you show me where you overpaid me?

Can't we spread this out over a few checks if I was over paid?

When you call the number you don't get the person who you were told to call. But the person on the other end takes your information and you are told you will be called back that afternoon.

That call doesn't come. If you call back later and ask, you are told, "No one is available to talk."

We have had payroll issues with Hennepin County for a long time. Unpaid overtime, missing sick time, unpaid raises and backpay. We have had many meetings with the County. County payroll is chronically off.

Now Hennepin County has a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars. They have very high paid accountants to manage their budget, guys with Masters Degrees in Accounting. Their one job is to make sure the numbers add up.

All of the payroll is done on software. Software with names like APEX and Workforce. Software programmed and run by high paid IT guys. Guys who's one job is to make sure that the payroll is inputted correctly.

Finally the day before Thanksgiving we were  told we just had to trust them.

The very next check they claim is wrong in their favor. Suddenly it's not weeks to resolve, grievances to be filed, no, it's instant correction.

Merry Xmas Grinch, er Hennepin County.

I'd love to give them a Department of Labor audit for my gift.