A&R Contract Changes
All new A&R contract language is in effect now. However, it likely will take some time for some of the contract changes to be fully integrated into the workplace. It is expected that the 1.5% pension contribution and the furlough contributions will begin on/about September 15 and be equally divided across the remaining 21 payperiods of the fiscal year.
This is a complete list of changes to the A&R Contract, listed by article order.
- Durational Employees will become permanent after 6 months (Article 2).
- Arbitrators will have a shorter cancelation period (Article 5 sec. 9)
- Reinstatement from dismissal will allow for buy-back of vacation time (Article 15)
- Late arrival on a delayed opening of/after 11:00 will allow excess time to be made-up or charged to accruals.(Article 16 sec 6)
- Essential employees will get comp time plus their regular pay for hours worked during state closings/delays. (Article 16 new section)
- AWS schedules/offerings will no longer go to a facilitator but to (expedited) arbitration. (Article 16A sec. 1 and 3).
- Required attendance at meetings outside the employee’s AWS schedule and/or the standard workweek will require 10 days notice or employee will be granted comp time. (Article 16A sec. 1)
- Non-AWS schedule accommodations under Individual Options can now be resolved by a Facilitator (Article 16 sec. 4)
- Maximum vacation accrual increases to 560 hrs rather than 480 (separation payout remains 480hrs). (Article 18 sec 2).
- Vacation/PL time will not be charged when the state closes (portion of day or full) unless employee has the full work week schedule off (Article 18 sec 3).
- Immediate family now includes mother/father in-law for purposes of bereavement. (Article 19 sec 3b)
- Funeral time expanded to include non-funeral memorial services (Article 19 sec 3d)
- Top Step Payment is now part of our annual wages and will be included in the calculations for promotions/demotions/bumping. Further, the TSP will now be calculated on the day it is applied (remember, we lost an arbitration on this, so now the calculation date is defined). (Article 24 sec 2)
- Wages:
- July 1, 2018 employees will be eligible for a $2,000 lump sum payment
OR
$1,000 to be paid on/about July 1, 2018 + their Top Step Payment to be paid on their normal anniversary date.
- July 1, 2019: 3.5% GWI + Top Step Payment/Step Increase on normal anniversary date
- July 1, 2020: 3.5% GWI + Top Step Payment/Step Increase on normal anniversary date
- Longevity payments for April 2018 will be delayed to the final paycheck of July 2018
- Furlough Days: 11/24, 12/26, 12/27. The 24hrs of “furlough” will be deducted equally across all paychecks through June 30, 2018. An agency may change out a scheduled furlough day if necessary and the individual(s) would select another furlough day of their choice prior to July 1, 2018.
- Bilingual Stipend - A quarterly stipend of $250 for assignment to bilingual services, which includes sign-language (Article 24 sec 15).
- Tuition Reimbursement: up to $200,000 for 2016/17. $200,000 for 2017/18 and 2018/19. $225,000 2019/20 and 2020/21 (Article 24 sec 9)
- Safety Shoe allowance: increases to $110 July 1, 2019.
- On-call pay: increases to $1.50/$2.50 non-holiday/holiday July 1 2019. (Article 24 sec 10)
- Home office premium increases to $300 July 1, 2019. (Article 24 sec 11)
- Professional Development: $120,000 2017/18 and 2018/19 then $125,000 thereafter. (Article 31 sec 6).
- Employees increase to an allotment of $600 per contract year and employees may access any unused allotment from the prior year to a maximum of $1,200. (Article 31 sec 7)
- CLE requirement for attorneys can be attained under Professional Development Funds and Professional Development Leave. On-line CLEs may be conducted on state systems. Bar association dues can be covered under Professional Development as well. (Article 31 sec 8).
- Safety: Limit of 18hrs work in a day. (Article 33 sec 5)
- Military Leave is now no less than any State or Federal law provides (Article 38 sec 6)
- Telecommuting: A&R will begin negotiations relating to Telecommuting no later than October 2017.
- MOU VIII: eliminates the denial of “ww” credit if an employee does not arrive on time during weather delays.
- MOU X: A&R will have until March 31 to swap funds from Prof Development to Tuition Reimbursement
- MOU XIII: Codifies agreement that employees in training classes do not have to re-start their training period if they laterally displace another trainee.
- The 2002 Travel Policy agreement with DRS has been vacated and out-of-state travel will now include portal-to-portal travel time.
- The grievance arbitration panel will be filled (we currently are down to only 3 arbitrators on our panel of 7).
- Settlement of a dispute regarding the implementation date of wages in the 2011 A&R contract. As a result, all currently active A&R employees who were employed in A&R titles on 8/23/13 will receive a settlement of $5. Those employees also eligible for a Top Step Payment either July 2013/January 2014 will receive an additional $10 (for a total of $15).
- Job Security: Employees impacted by programmatic changes/reorganizations will be offered placement in a comparable position. Refusal of a comparable position will set the A&R contractual bumping process into motion. Subsequently impacted employees will be offered comparable positions or A&R contractual bumping rights. (SEBAC 2017 agreement)
- FMLA for immediate family members may now be drawn from Sick Accruals (previously only vacation accruals could be used). This is in excess of the 5 days of Family Sick time already in our contract. (SEBAC 2017)
- FMLA for unpaid maternity, paternity or other child rearing leave for up to four months beyond the expiration of any leave otherwise due under FMLA (SEBAC 2017)