July 2020 FMHP Minutes

AFSCME Labor Management FMHP

July 16, 2020 1230PM

Administration Building-VOIP

 

Attendance: Adam Castle, Ryan Cates, Steve Wilking, Alex Flores, Emilio Florez, Annie Jukacki, Scott Melby, Marvin Sullivan, Lisa Vanderveen, Denise Considine, Alli Kuhlman, Carol Olsen, Lisa Vanderveen, Michelle Chalin, Roxanne Portner, Becky Robinson

 

Reflection/Celebration: Carol-Thank the staff for what happened on Redwood, Tamarac, and Willow with quarantine. One person tested positive and haven’t had any others.

Standing Agenda Items:

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

Old Business

Management

 AFSCME

  1. 1.      Hazard Pay: Ryan-Looking for pay for members. Any progress? Denise-we have talked several times. Hazard pay isn’t happening at local level. Goes through MMB and we haven’t heard anything nor can we approve it.
  2. 2.      Defined Work Area Issues: Steve-LPNs identified by groves. The answer was “this is the first we have heard about the overtime issues.” How could that be the first time? I wanted to bring it to your attention. On the sheet you gave us, they are still covering and being inversed outside of their grove. There are contractual ramifications. Why is it happening? Roxane-this is the way b and c have always functioned. It is confusing having separate vacation during the week and having them combined on weekends. It was before my time. Steve-Vacation is different when it’s a defined area in those sheets. The practice has changed since you provided those documents. We need to address that today or in the future. We will continue to carry it forward because it defines groves individually, not together. Its difficult to read your intentions on the defined work area sheet provided. I would like more communication on that. Denise-We do have 12 grievances on the work areas so I don’t want to discuss anything here that impacts those. Steve-I don’t want an answer, I just want to understand the breakdown when they provided the sheet. It is unclear. Bring forward so we can address after the grievances. Breakdown of each classification…I would like dialogue as far as SCs. Look at how they correlate and we can address at next month’s meeting so we can be prepared. Carol-do you think we will have a better idea what you are talking about after the grievances? Steve-those grievances are talking about distribution of OT outside of SCs. Not sure if its relevant. There are other grievances out there that I don’t want to get into. How LPNs and SCs are broken down. How the sheet is broken down, allows for interpretation. SCs are bid to unit. Defined work area is the unit or all of FMHP? How was that broken down? On the sheet it wasn’t clear if its FMHP as a whole or per unit? I want this out there so I don’t get an un-informed answer. Carol-we can use labor/management processes.
  3. 3.      COVID Issues: Ryan-Can we get more white masks? Carol-they are light blue. Jaime manages the supply on campus which were on the pandemic supply. They were distributed already. We get, what we get. She put out a request to DCT. We will search for them. Ryan-The issue is people with glasses and fogging up. Carol-Yeah, I get that and with the face shield, you are supposed to wear mask with it also. Marvin-Is there a reason if I do overtime, leave, and then come back, that I need to go through screening again? Carol-we did talk about that. If you aren’t coming back during shift exchange, you are coming through quickly. We can take that back though. Scott-we can look at it. we did this because it was simpler. It’s hard to keep track of coming and going. Marvin-some places offer stickers and write dates when you come through. If I was coming back, I would ask for a sticker and then get cleared through. People are wondering why do I need to answer the same questions to the same person. Scott-its inconvenient. Do you think someone would manipulate the system? Marvin-no, it’s basically the same people anyway. Scott-we will take a look at it, we are expecting new questions as well with other changes from DCT. Roxanne-when I go off and come back, I go on the same side and they usually just take my temperature. Marvin-that isn’t how it’s done typically. Steve-the tent coordinator happens to be my supervisor. They are required to follow the process every time. Emilio-I have worked the tent and if its someone I processed, I asked if anything changed and take a temp. Marvin-hospitals give a sticker for the day. Scott-we will look at it. I’m not surprised there is inconsistency. Carol-we also talked about our vendors coming and going as well and landed on consistency for everyone. It goes pretty quick. Emilio-we have three entry points that would help the pile ups as well if we have the staff. Carol-what are your thoughts on better mask compliance? Ryan-I remind people at work but I can’t be that mean or it could be a workplace issue. People that say they have a medical condition, we can’t force them. Put them in admin, etc. Carol-aside from those, we have seen on most units where people are just putting on their masks when we walk through. It’s not exclusive to FSS. We see about 80 percent compliance, which isn’t awesome. Steve-I have a cloth mask that has the n95 filtration system. We have bought different sizes. I don’t find these procedural masks comfortable and they break often. I would rather wear my mask which has better coverage. Why can’t I wear my mask when I can get better coverage? Better masks will result in better compliance. Carol-direction is from DCT. Us varying it, isn’t an option. Roxanne-is it n95 mask? Steve-I have them but if you want to talk about it, I can get you the style to show you. Why can’t we exceed their guidelines? Roxanne-I can see that but there is a lot of variation with what people will wear and to ensure proper use would be difficult. Steve-is it possible you can look at different masks that aren’t procedural. You can approve a model as an option for people to purchase. Have us sign a waiver that says we will wear it. Roxanne-I can bring it forward to the IT group.

New Business

Management

  1. 1.      Hiring for FSS Night Shift: Lisa- We are looking at this as retention piece for them to have the shift that they want. We have been having them start with 6 months on day shift before going to nights. Looking at reducing it to 3 months. We want you to be aware that we are considering options. We have some interested in night shift and can’t hire to it directly. We will let you know of any changes. MSOP has been notified about this too. We are interested in your opinions too. Ryan-they went away with it because the only thing left would be night shift and people didn’t want it. Lisa-there is a lot of history of this. Not looking to hire directly to night shift. Carol-we post night available positions by seniority. Least senior goes to nights if it comes to that. Denise-did we talk about this last week? Ryan-I don’t remember that. Denise-We talked about not directly hiring to nights, but waiting till they were done with their book. I know MSOP is thinking something similar.
  2. 2.      FMLA: July 1st is the beginning of the new leave year. If needing after July 1st, you need to submit to the leave management person. If you had it before, it is no longer in effect until you reapply.

AFSCME

  1. 1.      First Report of Injuries Requesting Monthly Reports: Steve-We are requesting first report of injuries as well but without names. Alli-I looked into this but she was wondering more about it. she has an accident log list and remove the names but she was saying the report of injuries don’t always get on the list. Steve-we want to see what the first report of injuries are for the month so we can gather more data. Alli-I will take that back to Dianne. Steve-she can reach out to me privately as well. Scott-those injury forms are reviews at safety team meeting redacted. Do you have someone that attends that? Ryan-no, we don’t. Scott-talk to a member there. we are careful with the information on the injuries. That was the process when I attended those. Annie-can the leaders of the unions get the reports sent to them, redacted? Scott-I am not sure. If they are redacted, I would think they could be. Alli-putting it in writing would be helpful so I can do follow up.
  2. 2.      UP Area for Meeting and Mailboxes: Ryan-Area is being taken away. Is there another area available? Scott-did they talk to their supervisors? Ryan-they sent emails and were told to find one. Scott- Their mail boxes are in Gooseberry breakroom and meetings will take place in C116 in the street. Have them reach out to their supervisor as well. Ryan-we just want a centralized location.
  3. 3.      OASIs Allowed to Pick Up Overtime on Units: Carol-We allow only those with current involvement with patients. We want to stay with that. Just like only MAPE staff who work on treatment units. Marvin-we have OASIs on treatment units and that have contact with patients. Ryan-coming from an OASI who used to be direct care staff. Carol-I can take It into consideration. We have to evaluate their training. I know who you are talking about. If they go through the training etc. Marvin-we are opening it up to everyone else, I can’t say we shouldn’t for others. Lisa-training is different for some groups with abuse prevention plans, etc. There are a lot of considerations and we would have to look through it for every person. Carol-we didn’t want to open it up so we have GMWs, food service workers, etc. They do good work but it’s so different. The OSI is pretty unique.
  4. 4.      LPN OT-Intermittent RN given LPN Spots Before it is offered to LPNs: Ryan-Scheduling, preassigning is the concern with not offering to LPN first. Roxanne-we aren’t creating a permanent schedule for this. Looking at all resources to fill the need. Ryan-it’s an LPN work area and also it costs more to run an RN so why? Roxanne-I can look at data. I’m not sure how much it costs. We also hear about overtime and exhausting staff. Its hard to find weekend staff. Steve-if you have the RN working, you have RN on overtime. They are offering RN the LPN overtime and then pulling the RN to fill the OT back in the RN role…. They weren’t using the RN intermittent at a base pay rather than paying overtime Roxanne-An RN need, we are offering to the intermittent.
  5. 5.      AODS Pool Anti-Union Action and Union Busting Activities: Ryan-It has gotten worse. Constant response is “blame it on your union” AFSCME is not causing the violation of our contract. It’s coming from Ted Wondra. Hess not the only one but does it a lot. Denise-is there a grievance? Ryan-yes, it’s happened after the class action I filed. Denise-we appreciate and hear you. We have to go through the grievance process first. Annie-with the grievance process, the contract has been violated. The issue is how members are talked to when a decision is made. OD can explain things to contact the union, the response of blame the union, isn’t appropriate. Blaming us is inappropriate. Denise-if we could get some specifics of those to Scott or HR, we can look into those specific situations. Ryan-Ok, I can do that.

Add On:

  1. 1.      Data Request: Steve-We would like to request to scheduling for data sheets. I have not reviewed the data request or further communication. Alli-I sent an email today. The scheduling department is working at it. it will take 8 to 10 hours to do this so they are working at it intermittently. There is time sensitive material related to this. Shall I submit grievance and put pending timeline due to data request? Alli-I can’t tell you to put in grievance but to keep into timeline, yes. Steve-I want to have the data to come forth additionally every month. So, this should just take seconds. We used to get that daily. Denise-because of the amount of time you are asking, it will take longer. Steve-anything that comes forth today, tomorrow you should be able to offer it before getting behind. If I come in today and ask for the information for the day, it shouldn’t take long. Rather than asking monthly. Denise-that would work a lot better.
  2. 2.      Referral Bonus: Ryan-Member of AFSCME refers someone in MNA, aren’t they eligible to receive the bonus? Alli-I handled this and it does say they have to refer someone in same bargaining unit. I can look back. Ryan-iot wasn’t in the MOU so I am curious. Carol-it is in the MOU but I can remember for sure. Annie-can you send the MOU to everyone to look at it? Alli-sure.
  3. 3.      Coverage by Seniority: Grove E isn’t covering by seniority. Just sending least senior staff. AODS does this as well so why aren’t they following the agreement? Carol-first time I am hearing this. Lisa-I can look into it. Ryan-some staff were inversed 2 or 3 times. I talked to the staff and they said we just send the least senior. Scott-issue is how grove e is structured through atlas. We are looking into it as well and I can look into this.

 

Meeting Adjourned at 135pm