February 2021 FMHP Meet and Confer

AFSCME Labor Management FMHP

February 18, 2021 1230PM

Administration Building

 

Attendance: Adam Castle, Emilio Florez, Ryan Cates, Steve Wilking, Alex Flores, Denise Considine, Scott Melby, Roxanne Portner, Carol Olson, Michelle Chalin, Marvin Sullivan, Alli Kuhlman, Annie Jakacki, Becky Robinson, Ryne Leytem

Reflection/Celebration: Scott-Physical plant staff had to come in a lot on Valentines day to work on the boiler. They put a lot of time in and there was a lot of good work done.

Standing Agenda Items:

  1. Osha Information-Handouts from Alli.
  2. 2.    Overtime Information-Handouts from Alli.

Old Business

Management

  1. 1.    Night Shift and Reassignment/Decision Day: Alli-We went through aspen reassignment and filled with volunteers. We asked night shift to move to day/evening shift and only had one volunteer. We ended up moving 4 of the least senior staff. We sent letters to night shift with their days off yesterday. There were four staff that were forced to move at this time. Two from nights were interested in aspen. One was moved on a different reassignment request and a couple more that moved who weren’t least senior. Carol-Vacated positions at night weren’t filled in preparation for this reason which helped. Marvin-how long were you not posting night positions? Carol-I don’t remember when we started. Roxanne-right after the new year…Carol-I asked Jodi not to fill positions for this change.
  2. 2.    FMHP Update: Becky-I posted a PowerPoint a week back. I wanted to give an overview related to staffing direct care staffing. We will do our best to keep our groups together. North campus FSS are earmarked to move to cedar. B2n is to birch. B2s to forest view north. Forestview north will be groves A.  Currently we have 5 LPN’s in Grove E.   As we consolidate into four Groves, there will be 2 LPN positions moved to Grove A and 3 LPN positions to Grove B/C.  Current Grove E LPN’s will be offered these positions in seniority order. Carol-On March 17th, we will post the Aspen schedule with the staff moving to Aspen. Those staff will be used to cover until it opens, our goal was to get staff into their new rotations by the date so that their rotations are in motion.
  3. 3.    Budget: Carol-Ryan put in a request to finance. Pay period on January 29, 987.97 positions funded. Paid out 1023.21 FTEs. 35.25 FTEs over budget. Of that, 39.5 is overtime FTEs. Although much of what we talk about is positions, a lot of this is driven by the dollar amount for the fiscal year. About 115 million. Those positions take up dollars. When we don’t fill a position, it has an impact on the budget. Some is about FTEs, but a lot has to do with dollars, or overall budget.

 AFSCME

  1. 1.    Intermittent RNs Given LPN Spots: Roxanne-I followed up with scheduling office to make sure we are following the process. They will offer to LPN, then intermittent LPNs going forward
  2. 2.    Camera and Audio Recording With No Sign: There is a sign present at this time.
  3. 3.    Camera In Staff Only Area/Mail Room: This has been removed.
  4. 4.    Performance Communications/Sidestep Contract: Cates-they are being used to tell staff they are negative. Becky-I followed up on one last week. Intention is to be a coaching. I relayed how it is confusing using different language. We will clarify that going forward. Is there language in contract about this? Cates-Coachings aren’t in the contract but are referenced in reports and discipline. Cates-Are you going to use one term then? Carol-Labor would want something like coaching. As far as just bringing to attention, I would think you want both but if you want coaching. Cates-coaching is something that is supposed to be informal anyway to just improve performance but has morphed into something different and used for discipline. Annie-Confusion is when they have the discussion at gets to discipline and comes back in the discipline in which the staff didn’t know it ever happened. Members don’t know what the conversations are. I think there needs to be clarity. Denise-if supervisor is talking to you about a concern, you need to take it seriously no matter what. I wouldn’t need my supervisor to tell me it is a coaching. I hope membership isn’t only taking them seriously if that is said. Annie-If someone just passes a member in the hallway, there isn’t good communication. Coaching is going out of your way and providing resources and concern to help them improve. Sometimes its just a quick conversation but then gets listed as coaching. Coach, and make it intentional. Denise-I understand that but also want to make it clear that people should take all conversations seriously. We can do some cleanup and have conversation. Alex-Is there an issue that a supervisor can’t just outline and say its going into a file? Roxanne-Notice to the employee is what I am hearing. Marvin-there have been a lot of things going in files with no warning. Steve-when doing performance evaluations, why aren’t supervisors going through this with staff? This is the time to do it, so that isn’t effective. Carol-We can take that back to supervisors. Alex-Is there an issue with supervisor stating the expectation with that conversation? Carol-we are all on the same wavelength here to reinforce that.
  5. 5.    Unit Partnering:
  6. 6.    LPN NOCS OT/Covering: Roxanne-I looked into it. In atlas, its reflected that there is a grove B LPN covering pine. Steve-A supervisor had them cover their home unit because this was their home unit. That is not what is supposed to happen. Roxanne-I didn’t talk to AOD but I referred to atlas. An LPN from a different area covering. Steve-She can’t get the OT to cover there. why is she being told to cover it if it’s her home unit. I just have to trust what you say what was on atlas. AOD said if they need help, she should cover it. But can’t get OT there. It has happened multiple times since last month. Roxanne-we have an LPN covering FSS shift? Steve-I am not sure.

New Business

Management

AFSCME

  1. 1.      Atlas/NOCS Calculating Accruals. 10 hr. vacation to 8hr. vacation: Steve- Members are being denied vacation. Atlas does its audit and won’t allow based on accruals. He is putting in for vacation due to not having accruals when he will have the time. Why are we denying requests if we know they are going to 8 hours? Becky-we didn’t know what their days off would be and wanted to minimize taking days off they didn’t need them. We will talk to Jodi about getting this taken care of. Steve-It’s still the same but thank you for looking into it. Alli-I talked to Jodi about the situation and she is working on making those changes now to nights vacation. Steve-Will that be reflected now or later? Alli-They are doing it today to reflect the 8 hours. Marvin-what happens with the days that were denied when he was eligible? Alli-resubmit his request since he didn’t have them at the time. Marvin-he would have but atlas calculated it wrong. Steve-Decision was already made to move to 8-hour shift. Atlas accruals should start when its official to move to 8 hours. Denise-we don’t have an answer. Employee needs to put in for the time. It was a 10-hour schedule when he put in. Submit and we can work through the process. I don’t have an answer.
  2. 2.      Grove A Overtime Taken Away From AFSCME and Given to MNA (1/14/21): Cates-She was an HSSS from grove A. She was then given OT. But on the shift before, AODS called her and said OT was being taken away. For that next shift, an RN was given her overtime. Denise-This is specific, send us the details and we can look into it? Cates-yes. Denise-its specific and we can look into it. Roxanne-I can look into it too.
  3. 3.      Grove A Filling Med Appointment/Overtime: Grievance in process.
  4. 4.      Expense Request: Alex-How much do we rely on calling physical plant for issues? Work orders for toilets, etc. Concerns me that with this, it agitates clients to wait for physical plant to take care of it. Especially on weekends. Curious how much we rely on on-call. Would it be prudent to take care of the issue long term instead? Carol-I hope that the supervisors are keeping staff informed on toilet issue. the toilets that were installed aren’t working like they should. The contractor is going to replace those toilets. Supervisors are aware of that. With on-call; it’s difficult to manage our environment depending on what the need is. We put one person on call and if it’s another need; they will try to contact someone in that trade. We implemented this 4 years ago and has been going well. I can talk to Scott berg about it also. We look at work orders quarterly to see where they are coming from. It varies so much and we monitor it.  Those costs come from our budget. Steve-where is the cost coming from to replace the toilets? Carol-The sub-contractors are footing the bill for the toilets, it’s their error. Marvin-does the state not have avenues to recoup the money from the contractor? Carol-I don’t know. Marvin-when you have to call staff in on your budget, what is the cost of that? Carol-I don’t have an answer for that off the top of my head.
  5. 5.      OT Tank/Assigning OT: Steve-We are having assignment issues with the tank. The OD is supposed to pull you out. Some people are getting a specific unit and others pulled off. Informing you it’s happening again. The tank is there instead of preferential treatment. If you want the OT, you want the OT. Scott-I agree. I will do some follow up. I wasn’t aware of it. If you have specific details, get those to me. Steve-Emails are coming to me saying it’s happening. I don’t have specifics, but I can confirm I have witnessed it happening. Scott-if it happens again, share the details.
  6. 6.      Master Control Move/Keys, Communication: Steve-Master control moving back to main spot had logistical issues. There was no communication on SharePoint. Key boxes went down, etc. people didn’t have keys. We allocated temp key boxes but there are issues with that as well. We understand there are mishaps but there needs to be better communication with what is going on. Carol-I can take that back to supervisors of the area. TC is communicating with leadership every morning, but I will take that back. Steve-thank you for that. Cates-when they were messing with key boxes at shift change, staff had to go to units without keys. That creates a dangerous situation. They should consider the time of day. Carol-I will follow up with that. Roxanne-They planned for 9am but then wasn’t completed. They tried but it took longer than expected.

Add Ons:

  1. 1.    Rescinding Vacation: Cates-Members are taking an entire week and then rescind it, therefore getting early shifts even if it was for a late shift originally. Is scheduling allowing it? Scott-How often is this happening? Cates-It’s ongoing every pay period. Scott-how many people? Cates-many. Scott-staff are allowed by contract. Cates-If its outside of 14 days and has to be posted afterward. Denise-Our supervisor talks about cancellation of 5 days or more, you have to give notice 2 days before the posting period. We should be able to put them back on the schedule. Cates-5 days or more they have to give notice 4 weeks before 1st day of posting period. I will look into this and see if they are doing it correctly. Can this just be pointed out to scheduling? Denise-yes, I think we can. Carol-Roxanne will follow up with Jodi. Emilio-I received notification of rotations being unbalanced. Any numbers to support that? Scott-constantly looking at rotations to look at balance. We are monitoring that.
  2. 2.    Emilio: A lot of our leaders wearing two masks. Can we utilize cloth over surgical masks? It would help protect us more and show leniency to members. Carol-we can take to DCT level. Our supervisors shouldn’t be doing that. Emilio-it provides extra protection. Emilio-any talk about staffing AODs down here instead of a staff? Carol-we have not thought about that.

 

Meeting Adjourned at 131PM