AFSCME Labor Management FMHP

December 16, 2021 1230PM

Administration Building

Attendance: Adam Castle, Ryan Cates, Annie Jakacki, Jake Schoenecker, Marvin Sullivan, Steve Wilking, Eric Manriquez, Kurt Crosby, Alex Flores, Scott Melby, Becky Robinson, Alli Kuhlman, Heather Staff, Ashley Shanley, Michelle Chalin, Carol Olsen, Roxanne Portner.

Reflection and Celebration: Carol-Move to north campus went well. Marvin-The walls came down.

Standing Agenda Items:

1. Osha Information: Handouts from Alli.
2. 2.      Overtime Information: Handouts from Alli.
3. 3.      Budgeted Position Review: Carol-Actively trying to fill positions. We had 29 FSS dead bids and 4 food service workers. Working with HR at doing another virtual job fair in January with enough timing to start orientation in February. Using media communication. Marvin-8 Vacant LPNs. Alli-Current vacancies are 29 SC’s, 13 HSSS (8 require a CAN) 8 LPN, 4 FSW

Old Business

Management

AFSCME

1. 1.      COVID Issues: Alex-Prevalence testing. Roxanne-initiated when we have an outbreak or cluster in an area. Generally, patient positives are involved. If we see a cluster of staff as well, would be considered. Offered to anyone that wants to do testing that is unvaccinated. PPS is done through mayo. Options for staff in clustered area. I can ask what a cluster and outbreak is. Alex-Definition presented. Roxanne-send that to me and I will look at it. Marvin-it’s under the covid guidelines you sent yesterday. 6-page document. Roxanne-we are doing testing for unvaccinated. Our vaccinated are not considered high risk but we see cases there too. Alex-how strict are the guidelines? Do we have to follow them? Marvin-I can send it to you. Marvin-It also talks about requirement to sit visits. MDH says we don’t watch visits according to this document. Why are we still sitting them? Carol-I don’t know, but I will look into it. Marvin-We are sitting patients right now. It also talks about unvaccinated residents not allowed to have visits if we are above 10 percent. Residents that are unvaccinated may dine with others but if they are not all vaccinated, everyone has to wear a mask and shield as part of the guidelines. Steve-It’s hard to determine what guidelines we are following. Why are we doing this but not a visitor or a patient. Carol-All of these documents are looked at, at the DCT level and guidelines come to us. Roxanne-Residents and patients have right to refuse so we can’t force them. Carol-We decided we weren’t going to treat patients differently based on their status because then it gives out information. Marvin-but you are laying out information about staff then. Alli-It’s not specific because you may not disclose your status as well. Kurt-Patients hear things we don’t. Tamarak had positives and others who no one knew their status. Patients asked why the staff are out. Its dividing expectations for staff and patients. Only picking and choosing what we are following. Carol-At DCT level, I don’t want to say they are dropping the ball. They are working hard to put forth standards to follow. I can’t explain why some things are picked up and others aren’t. Kurt-The people who implemented the eye wear policy didn’t hand them out and see how it effects our jobs. Carol-We have representatives on the committee. We have 3 forensics from forensics. DCT looks at how to implement the guidelines and then bring them back to see how we can apply them. I trust our representatives up there. You all have done a great job. We have had only 20 residents test positive; this shows our processes have protected us. Alex-We have had limited testing. Carol-At the beginning we had a lot of testing and tests still come back negative. We are testing at the right kind of rate. Roxanne-The only way to reduce exposure is to always wear N95.
2. 2.      Grove A Vacation Spots Proposal:
3. 3.      GMW Radios for Grove A: Scott-There are enough radios out there. If they can’t check out radios, talk with your supervisors. It’s annoying the staff to check them out. Ryan-The issue is the GMW has to check out staff radios and staff doesn’t like it. every other building, they have radios for themselves. Scott-Please have staff work with supervisor. If unit staff don’t have enough, we can get them more. We aren’t going to have them assigned their own radios because it is identified when they are checked out. we know where it is. Carol-It depends on the pool and the banks of radios. Eric-It has been an issue for a long time where there aren’t enough radios. Someone said there are enough radios to put some out there. Scott-I am asking to have the staff talk to their supervisors. I have checked and they said there are enough. We will get more there if needed. Eric-I heard the supervisor said to have a staff with you that has a radio. Scott-If they don’t get an answer, reach out to me or Brian. Scott-What I learn here, is different than what I hear here. If a supervisor isn’t responding, I can follow up. Carol-I am hearing two things. Staff want their own bank and there aren’t enough radios. we won’t have separate banks. Kurt-Utility pool takes form different areas. We talked about location and how it isn’t accurate anyway. If they have a bank, they can just say where they are. Carol-lets have the supervisors figure out what is best for the radios.
4. 4.      Retention Ideas: Ryan-Last month we tried to figure out way to give OT bonus for FSS like it is for LPNs. Kitchen workers as well. Steve-Last month we talked about ideas and Alli said she would take it back to MMB. We haven’t seen anything besides what is already in place. Looking at inflation and private sector. I get its contractual, if we are on 2-year cycle and private is increasing, we will get left behind. If we aren’t competitive, we won’t attract quality candidates. If bonuses aren’t working, we need to do something. We can do weekend bonuses in MOU. What are we doing? Looking at the numbers, roughly 29 down. We gained maybe 4 in two months. Our workforce is getting older. Alli-There are labor shortages nationwide. We are looking into MOU for voluntary OT bonus for SC, SCL, and food service. It is being looked at right now. MSOP and forensics. We would propose through MOU. Also looking at unique ways to retain and get new staff. We have referral and recruitment incentives. Retention incentives are in the works as well. Trying to do some interview processes using spark hire. Allows for flexibility with hiring. Virtual job fairs. Looking at different avenues for hiring as well. Hopefully we can work together to explore options and be creative to retain the work force as well. We are in the stage with people leaving the work force. We have a full HR team which will also help with ideas. Added recruitment HR staff. Carol-We look at backgrounds and offer more than the first step to be competitive. Kurt-The people at the facility now. I hear hiring bonuses; it causes strife for the current staff. My son is making 26 starting, that is what I am making right now. When you give all of this for the people coming in, please don’t forget about the current staff. Carol-I get that, it’s a balance. We have to bring people in to support the program also. Alli-Language is voluntary shift bonus in the contract. Kurt-Discussion for people who work hard to fill shifts.
5. 5.      Booster Shot Vaccine Clinic: Roxanne-Data was on the committee yesterday and no further discussion. On forensics there were around 100 interested in boosters.
6. 6.      Probationary Staff to Nights After 3 Months: Ryan-Any more discussion? Alli-Becky does want to explore that. We would like to see how mid probation is, and on an individual basis. If people are interested, let me know.

New Business

Management

1. 1.      HSSS and LPN Vacation Allotment: Roxanne-Proposal on January 19th. Staff can submit requests from January 12 to 19th. We are basing numbers on what we have staffing to support for allotment. Kurt-how many vacation spots per staff? 10 to 1 at one time. Carol-Grove A is every other weekend so that is different. It reduces the pool by half. Same for nursing home. We can reassess in the future.
2. 2.      Next Collaborative Workgroup 12/16 at 3pm: Alli-Look at moving that to another date.
3. 3.      Incident Review Scheduling Adjustments or OT: Alli-Becky is not here so I am unsure. Carol-When there are reviews, we are not always making sure the staff involved are scheduled to participate. We will make effort to make that happen. I sat one and we had direct care staff in both. It was very helpful.  
4. 4.      Communication Devise Survey: Carol-There is a survey coming out. In an RCA, a patient had fallen and not able to call for help. When there are times a patient needs to have communication from their room. What would work in our environment for patients to call for assistance.
5. 5.      Mutuals Between D/E Probationary Staff and NOCS: Alli-Becky wanted to talk about this. We want to look at what is capable and qualified. She wants to continue to apply the 6-month language, but she is open to talking about it more for after a 3-month term. Ryan-I understand what you are saying but scheduling said it’s a different work area. Are you saying its work area? Alli-No, it’s capable and qualified. Annie-Are they able to be mandated to those? Alli-Yes. Annie-How is it different then if its voluntary basis. Alli-I think its if they are trying to move all of their shifts to that work area. Scott-I don’t know about scheduling. We want to make sure staff successfully complete their probationary period. This 3-month period we are looking at considering people to go to night shift. She wants to do case by case for mutalling to night shift. We want to make sure it’s not too soon. We also hear from your members, the same thing. If staff haven’t interacted with patients at all. Kurt-If they go to overnights, I would think they could be placed where there are eyes on them. Scott-We have gone back and forth on this for a long time. We are trying to balance this out. When we stick to the 6 months and then switch to accommodate, this always comes up. Ryan-Labor thinks you are classifying and limiting mutuals. Marvin-they quoted limiting to 2 pay periods mutualling to doubles. Steve-There are many contractual concerns here when you can’t let them mutual. What is stopping them to mutualing to a late shift if you have a day/night staff? Carol-There is an issue when someone mutuals all of their shifts to overnights. The process is to stay for 6 months and then you can take a night shift. People are going around that. Ryan-This comes from someone who was bumped to nights and then there is someone who want nights. Annie-I don’t think it is fair to have a blanket response to not ever mutual to nights. If someone is doing this constantly, that is something else. By limiting staff by a blanket isn’t fair to those not abusing it. If there is an issue, look at it on a case-by-case basis. If they can be forced or voluntarily pick up overtime, it’s not fair to limit for other family reasons as well. Carol-This comes up every year from members. People need to work and experience daytime happenings. Now, people say they want it sooner. There is a balance there. Steve-If we need to work through MOU, we can do that route but if there isn’t an agreement here, we can use the contract negotiations process. Marvin-There is nothing stopping a staff to mutual to another unit as well. Scott-We want to be flexible, if we allow too much, we can make probation not meaningful. If you have someone not prepared to work, night shift is where you need to have people that know what is going on in case something happens because there are a lot fewer staff on. We aren’t resistant but thoughtful. Annie-We don’t disagree with having staff that are experienced on overnights. That mindset disappears if you need to fill a shift. You wouldn’t allow to mutual, but you don’t have a problem forcing them. That is our part. We can talk about the staff abusing it, but if they are able. It shouldn’t depend on the need. Alli-We will revisit contract language and practices and how to move forward.
6. 6.      FSSLs on Secure Units: Carol-We are evaluating. Some don’t have FSSLs. As we move into the new building, we are evaluating that. We would like to even it out with units that need them, but it creates vacant positions. Steve-Are you looking at sooner or later? Carol-I would like to see what happens with the job fair then proceed and reevaluate.
7. 7.      ICMS Team Meet and Greet: Alli-Supporting DCT with conflict in the workplace. Asking if they can come into the meeting for a meet and greet and talk about what they do. Is it okay to have this in the next meeting? Ryan-Yes. Integrated Conflict Management Systems.

AFSCME

1. 1.      Retention Ideas/OT Bonus for Kitchen Workers:
2. 2.      AODS Issues/New AODS Training Coverage Issues: Ryan-Least seniors not covering or out of order. New AODS saying they randomly assign instead or what we talked about. 2 most senior staff covering at beginning of pay period. Scott-didn’t use the float report? Ryan-Yes, last Wednesday. Scott-We should be using float report. Let us know right away if we aren’t using it. Get information and share more, then we can follow up. There are up to 9 people doing that work. We want to target the follow up. AOD training is pretty extensive. Its possible something got missed or they forgot. We are interested in knowing specifics. Ryan-Staff going home sick told to find own replacement. Scott-We don’t expect staff to find replacement, that is our job. I will follow up. Marvin-When a unit was running short on a unit due to a meeting, they were told to find their own replacement. Scott-Sometimes on a snow day, we need to make decisions as ODs to get you to that meeting. Marvin-I was uncomfortable leaving the staff and I was told to find own replacement. Scott-I will look into it. Jake-It is important for AODs to be in contact with the float pool instead of us. A lot of time I am told to call the utility pool. Scott-There are times, they may ask you to call members of the pool. I am okay with that. Marvin-I am also but when I am coming into the building and can’t do that, I don’t like that. Scott-I agree with you.
3. 3.      Eye Protection PPE Concerns: Ryan-Some goggles dull the senses. I was given these…Michelle-These glasses were issue in 2020 when we started in the nursing home. Ryan-These came from Redwood. Carol-We have some in PPE kits on units. We have new ones on order. Jamie hopes to see the product on campus next week and then distribute them. I’m not taking away what everyone wants if everyone can’t have them. Some units had similar goggles. Carol-State issued can be worn, if state issued. Scott-We are working on getting supplies. It’s possible what we get may look different. We are fighting with other places to get equipment. Carol-We did get some more face shields as well. If there are places that need them, they will be deployed there. Kurt-Can we order our own that meet the guidelines that are similar? Carol-Stay with what we are providing. Roxanne-Use what is provided. There are a lot of different types. We need to be consistent. If you need accommodation, we can look into that. We are looking at getting different options. Carol-ADA accommodation may be to get prescription or cheaters would all be though ADA. Michelle-when working with patient with suspected covid, you have to wear goggles. Carol-Staff have popped off vents, you cannot do that. Kurt-They get full of condensation. Steve-If they need safety glasses or cheaters, are they required to pay for it? Carol-I can’t answer that. Ryan-If in a situation, can they take off for safety reasons? Carol-When it comes to an incident, we request to keep them on. if they come off during intervention, they come off. Same with driving, do it safely as possible. We don’t want you to keep them on if you can’t see. Maintain distance in a vehicle.
4. 4.      Mutuals Between E/L and Nights:

Add Ons:

1. Ryan-Weather days. New practice to not use accruals if they call in due to weather. Carol-Defer until I talk to Denise. Ryan-We were told yesterday they are going back to Friday’s storm and give ETL. We have many notes stating they can use accruals. Carol-Yes, but governor issued. Kurt-No. Ryan-MMB does say that even if emergency isn’t declared, you can work with supervisor to use leave. Carol-I was told its approved ETL. Don’t blame your supervisor. Ryan-There were maybe 30 to 40. Scott-A lot called in sick. Carol-We know when there is a storm and don’t want people to risk it. But we also know there are people who take advantage. Marvin-with the tardiness policy, it talks about tardiness as 15 minutes late or not reporting to work. Supervisors’ decision to authorize and may use comp or vacation for absence. Steve-Staff came to me that the perception is when this got around is what should I do. If I call in and get ETL, you are disciplining me and causing me to come into work so you can have a body at work when it’s not safe to drive. Not like it was an inch of snow, it was 10. Carol-I know ETL isn’t always discipline, there is approved ETL and unapproved ETL. It’s a loss of wages though. I am trying to protect all of the membership from inversing and all of those things. I don’t want people risking but also to just not make it in by choice.

2. A night staff was concerned that they were expected to shovel and remove snow without the proper attire. I said to call physical plant. Carol-Building owner is responsible for the snow removal. Staff wasn’t informed on who to call. We have contacted them about it.

3. Steve-LPN offered HSSS overtime in prairie view without any cross training. Grove B or C to Grove A. They wanted OT but didn’t take it due to not being trained. They were signed up for subsequent. Grove A does HSSS a lot but not Grove B. Are HSSS short or is it an accident? Scott-I will follow up. Sometimes with weather we get put in a spot. I will follow up.

Ryan-Testing in MOJ due batch testing? Carol-Every test is individual.

Carol-Ask member that this coming Christmas weekend, be kind to your peers on the holiday. Please don’t call in unless you are sick. Be kind to each other over the holiday. Encourage members not to come in sick as well. Self-screen at home so you don’t expose others.

Kurt-Toy drive is completed. Donation was made to Le Seuer county yesterday. They are very happy. Carol-You are welcome to have multiple drop off spots, by summit center as well.

Scott-Recognize the physical plant. They have had a lot of weather to deal with already. They did a remarkable job.

Meeting Adjourned at 215pm