Mental Health & Substance Abuse Treatment Services
CARE-St. Peter and CBHH-Rochester
AFSCME Labor/Management Meeting Agenda
Meeting Location: CBHH-CARE Rochester Conference Room
Thursday June 27, 2019
Attendance: Adam Castle, Matt Stenger, Eric Hesse, Emilio Florez, Steve Wilking, Ryan Cates, Kristine Wahlberg, Diane Andrews, Heather Tucky, Judy Ehrman, Tiffany Brown, Ashley Samora, Bill Cott, Ker Thao
AFSCME AGENDA ITEMS
Introductions
Management Updates
CARE St. Peter:
CBHH Rochester:
Labor Questions and Updates
AFSCME
Duty Free Breaks on Weekends: Emilio-Member from CARE in St Peter working on weekends without breaks. 8.5 or 8 hours. Ashley-In event of sick call and running at minimum, if they have to take breaks in facility we pay overtime for breaks. We have been scheduling middle shifts to provide overlap. I need more info. 8.5 hours that’s why if someone calls in and have to take in facility, we pay for it. Cates-has it been routine? Ashley-not to my knowledge. Our mandatory overtime is minimal. Give me a circumstance and I can give specifics.
LPNs Auditing Med Pass: Emilio-is this something you do here in Rochester or CARE? Handing out med errors and giving blue slips. Heather-as a reminder yeah. The night staff does. Emilio-we are told that if they get so many, they will be reprimanded. AFSCME cannot hand out reprimands to other AFSCME staff. Stenger-putting coworker in a position of reprimanding. Tiffany-the coworker is not providing the reprimand. Only a reminder. If someone does receive so many, they can be reprimanded by management. Stenger-but you are using those audits for potential discipline. Putting staff in the middle. Audits should be done by management. Tiffany-we can discuss how it can be done differently. Steve-within audit it could create friction doing the audit and talking to that staff. Emilio-it has caused friction and conflict with another employee. Tiffany-thank you
Supervisor Denying copies of workplace relations and disciplining for it: Emilio-staff told may be disciplined for workplace relations and asked for the copy and management didn’t provide after multiple requests, nor was she guided on how to access. Cates-if expecting to follow policy, provide expectation in CBHH. Tiffany-send me a specific person and I can send link to policy but staff are provided in orientation. Need clarification for their signed copy or wanting to find complaint form. I can address with management. I don’t know who I need to be helping.
Forcing Employees to come in early: Emilio-CBHH someone scheduled mid shift 12-8. Something happened where they needed more staff. They can call employee to force to come in early? Judy-people were being told they had to come in. Stenger-nothing in contract that says you can force prior to shift. Only after they are at work. It happens in spurts and stop from happening. Tiffany-ok.
Weekly/Bi-Weekly check-ins with AFSCME to assist contract issues: Emilio-in MSH we have a weekly check in. touch base on everything going on. Ask for clarifications, etc. We meet here every quarter, would you be open to bi-weekly or monthly check in to discuss. We can help each other out with contract and procedures. Tiffany-I can see value, I don’t want to speak for everyone. I would like to talk to management and get back to you in a week. Emilio-the union would like to be more visual. We would like to reserve conference room so we can come and answer questions for staff. Tiffany-ok, time of day or on same day every time? Or add management too? Emilio-MSH we do every Wednesday. We can use video conference and figure out. Tiffany-OK.
Notifying AFSCME of AFSCME employee disciplines: Emilio-I haven’t received Andy notifications of reprimands or decertification. Can I be added to the mailing list? Cates-I have been getting the disciplines. Can you add him to the emails as well? Tiffany-yes. I appreciate that feedback. I want to learn and make sure we have good communication.
Add Ons
Posting master schedule outside of posting period changing before posting: Hesse-All for CARE in St. Peter. If it’s not posted, it’s posted as a place holder. Staff viewing as set schedule and planning around it. Then it gets posted and the shift gets changed. Would it be beneficial to not have that? Ashley-our recommendation is we don’t have place holder schedules viewable until they post. Made by executive staff. She wants staff to be able to see schedules ahead of time. We try to reiterate that unless it’s a posted schedule, I encourage you to take vacation for that day. We try to keep on a scheduled but to accommodate the needs of facility, we have to change things sometimes. My recommendation is that if you need a day off, you request that day. That’s the only guarantee. System function I can’t turn on or off. I suggest you work with HR to talk with executive team to see if we can turn that off. Tiffany-Atlas has a place holder but official schedule that follows contract is posted? Ashley-problem is that staff have issue with logging in and seeing rotation 6 months in advance but can’t see schedule with everyone’s shift until it’s posted. Their shifts aren’t set until that schedule is posted. We are diligent with posting before 14 days. Then no changes made. Kristine-it’s engrained in the system itself. Ashley-It is how atlas is set up. It was shut off but this is why I always remind staff that if you need vacation on a day. Make sure you request for that day off to be guaranteed. Kristine-it came about because staff wanted kind of an idea. Ashley-against our wishes, we allowed for this. Tiffany-is this a communication issue? What is your ask? Emilio-in MSH atlas, they don’t post. Stenger-we cannot see outside of posted pay period. Ashley-part time staff don’t have set days off. I have heard complaints from a staff about not having some weekends off and I have to explain that you will not be scheduled those days but don’t have set days off. Hesse-could be miscommunication but also that pre schedule confusion. Ashley-I was not in support of this ahead of schedule because of these concerns. We tried to communicate this clearly to staff. I invite afscme to come and talk to staff with us so they understand this. I’m not sure how else I can communicate that. Emilio-we can do a follow up. Any issues with atlas, Jodi is very resourceful and if you want the 6 months removed, she may be able to do that. Stenger-as a group we wouldn’t like to see it posted that far out. Ashley-as a staff that works on the floor, that isn’t something I would appreciate either but it was made above me because of requests from employees. I would like to have that meeting also with other sites if they have issues too. Tiffany-seeing other stewards there, are we all in agreement? Judy-I like it but I have set days off. Its worthless if you don’t have set days off. Tiffany-I will look into it.
Saying staff can’t rescind vacation within posted pay period: Hesse-nothing in contract that says they can’t. Ashley-I can’t remember off the top of my head but there was a time where someone’s plans changed and wanted a shift that was already covered and wanted to rescind Friday a shift on Sunday and that was denied because there wasn’t a need for the coverage. Hesse-contractually they can. Ashley-if there is no need….we were told by union we were not to be doing that by the union. Rationale we got was because we only allow one afscme to take vacation. People were taking it and rescinding 3 days before vacation and 5 denied because it was taken. In the posted vacation and need isn’t there, we don’t let them because it takes away from vacation. Cates-he’s going off list of complaints form members and discussing. Double edged sword. Ashley-we are not allowing because it takes away from other afscme members.
Intermittent Assignments: Ashley-part time staff who want full time get schedule 80. One staff is hard to understand that vacation time is part of that 80. She feels she should have been scheduled 2 more days if we had intermittents. Always schedule up to 80 hours. If we have one that doesn’t want more than 64, I will not schedule more. Includes time off for up to 80 hours then shifts are offered to intermittents. Hesse-confusion is with place holder schedule thinking regular time off and expect its normal weekend off and then they expect to be scheduled to make up for it. Tiffany-sounds like this scheduler program could fix this. Ashley-sound like this is the same staff. This is why I would love for you to come do a site visit. Cates-let’s say she wants Thursday/Friday vacation. You count as vacation so she only gets 8 shifts then using intermittents. Why not use those as regular shifts before adding intermittents. Ashley-because it goes back to the vacation spots for afscme. I can’t guarantee we will need her by the time that schedule is posted. Cates-as long as you have the numbers, you can still give out vacation days once posting is up. You aren’t prohibited from giving vacation inside of posting slot. Ashley-not set up that way with our pool. Other AFSCME can’t request those same days off then. We are trying to be accommodating. Part time get 80 before intermittents get scheduled. Stenger-do you have heavy days that we could come to visit? Ashley-certain times. Try to schedule morning meetings between 7 and 8 to accommodate day and night shift and then 2 to 3 to get the other people. I welcome you to come to these times. Judy-Overlap is noon to 5. Emilio-do you have all staff forums. Ashley-yes we have them monthly. Stenger-maybe come in on tail end of one of these. Get us the next dates? Ashley-won’t be for a couple of weeks. Let us know when.
Clarify Holiday Granting Process: Stenger-question how they are granted. Up to 28 days to request off and given out by seniority. If no one requests it, offered most senior to work it. Heather-yep. This is how I did it this last time. Cates-how do they request? Atlas? Heather-yes through atlas.
CARE Acuity in building: Emilio-Ashley-only required 2 staff when at full capacity but haven’t been passed 8 in a year. Ever had to run with one staff? Ashley-there shouldn’t be ever. Emilio-I have an email that says 1 staff. Staff safety. Apparently you filled a ball with one pound of sand and gave to client. Care has patient that targets female staff and a lot of time its only 2 female staff. He is a violent patient? Ashley-he talked to me about it as well. The stress balls were made by LADC. Next morning the concerns were talked about and they were taken and cut down to palm size. Requested that when crafts are done, they talk to management first so we can give approval. LADC was open to that. The other situation with the female staff. We only have one male staff so not scheduling two females is not doable. This patient has not been physical aggressive or inappropriate physically. He has made comments that were read into because he has a past with meth psychosis but he hasn’t shown physical aggression while in our facility. Emilio-if there are more concerns, is this something you would raise the acuity? Ashly-yes. Anytime I have had staff say there were concerned, my question is what you can do to protect yourself and team. If there is a need for staffing up, I will not hesitate. The team here is receptive. There are times I have come in also. We try to be proactive. We will call out overtime for the next shifts and cancel if we don’t need it.
Complaint about job posting not posted: Emilio-It was then reposted on holiday and given back to the original staff. Ashley-no, it was posted and was not given until it was bid on and then rewarded. After talking to the staff, they were told when it was posted, the person who got it was on a bid not on external. I wasn’t able to get someone to understand because he wasn’t part of that classification. Eligible in the region got that job because he was that classification.
Wrap up and miscellaneous
Adjourned at 235pm