Present: Bonnie Wold, Chris Hanson, Cindy Jungers, Matt Stenger, Molly Kennedy, Eric Hesse, Tim Headlee, Liz Barbo, Amanda Mathiowetz, Michelle Bremer, Tim Lokensgard, Zac Sowieja, Troy Sherwood, Mike Homer
MANAGEMENT AGENDA ITEMS
1. Transports for Clients with Oxygen a. The practice is going to change. This is being reviewed at both facilities. If a client is being transported for an emergency to the hospital and nursing has assessed that the client is stable, a nurse will not go with. If a client is deemed unstable and is on oxygen we will be calling an ambulance. If a client on oxygen is discharged from a hospital as stable a nurse will not be sent. b. Staff will not be required to do anything with the oxygen. Staff will not be asked to adjust the dosage. If something were to occur the staff should treat it like any emergency; either drive to the nearest hospital or pull over and dial 911. Staff should make sure the canister is secured in the vehicle or that the client is holding it. c. Molly Kennedy mentioned that oxygen is considered a drug and asked if Security Counselor’s supervising this would be a conflict. Michelle Bremer stated that oxygen is seen as a prescribed med, similar to a SAMS med. d. Bonnie Wold said that they will update the transport policy to include this. Tim Lokensgard will be taking care of this.
2. Employee Engagement Committee a. On Tuesday the Employee Engagement Committee met and put together a proposal in regards to employee recognition. Bonnie Wold stated that it was a very well put together presentation. It will be peer nominated and will be through every area throughout the facility. Names of those nominated will be brought forward and will be posted on a shadow board coming into the facility and CPS. There will be 12 names a month of employees whose peers have nominated them. b. To nominate someone there will be a form with different criteria on it. There will be different areas someone can be nominated for. Out of those nominated a team will meet and decide the Employee of the Month. That employee will receive a parking spot and a plaque. c. There will be 1 Employee of the Year. The name will be drawn. That employee will receive a larger plaque. d. Nominations will begin December 1st with January being the first month awarded.
AFSCME AGENDA ITEMS
1. Breaks and Being Forced to Take Them a. When employees sign up for SNV they may put off their break to not take an extra half hour out of their accruals. There have been instances where the OD is forcing them to take the half hour against their accruals even if a break was not taken. Molly Kennedy mentioned that sometimes people are unable to get their break in before 6 hours of their shift have passed. She asked that this be looked at. b. Tim Lokensgard stated the OD should be called if employees are unable to get their break in. For example, on 2nd Watch the OD should be contacted at 11am if you have not been able to have your break. c. Tim Lokensgard stated that the benefit of scheduling breaks would be that then the OD would know where there are staff. For example, Pexton may have 4 people out on break at the same time but Shantz may have no one out. d. CPS Movement Coordinator break – Management stated that Control Center should not be providing this. Molly Kennedy said that there aren’t many trained who are not in CC. Tim Lokensgard said that he was under the impression there were more and that we will need to get more trained. Liz Barbo said that those covering CPS breaks do not need to change because they are only there for 30 minutes. ** Upon further discussion among management after the meeting this message was received from Human Resources: “Management would like to have employees notify the OD by 11am, 7pm, and 3am respectively, based on watch, if the said employee is unable to facilitate their own break. This will allow time for the OD to assess if a break can occur or if overtime shall be awarded and how whether or not the employee given SNV will or won’t have to take their break.”
2. Hand Sanitizer for Control Centers/Count Areas a. This has been taken care of since the agenda came out. b. Clarification – the only place with alcohol based hand sanitizer’s is Health Services and the Count Office. The Count Office has this because they do not have access to a sink and do have a lot of client contact.
3. Grievance Procedure – Finding Ways to Streamline a. Molly Kennedy said that the current process is for a steward to scan the grievance and send it to Human Resources. Lately the stewards are unaware of when they can sit down with the supervisor to discuss the grievance. AFSCME has been waiting for the supervisor to set up a time because of less availability but that has not been happening. Sometimes it is taking weeks to meet with the sup. Cindy Jungers said that she will try to copy the steward when the grievance is being sent to the supervisor.
4. Contacting Stewards for Investigations a. Lately more OD’s have been going to the list of stewards without regards to who has sat an investigation before and who has not. The last couple of weeks there have been 3 or 4 stewards who have never sat an investigation before as representation. At one point there was a list given to management with stewards who frequently sit investigations. Molly Kennedy said that she would like a steward to observe an investigation with a seasoned steward first. Those who do not feel comfortable do not turn down the investigation out of not wanting to be insubordinate. b. Molly asked management to ask the OD’s to contact her, Eric Hesse, or Mike Homer to discuss the steward sitting the investigation prior to the investigation. If Eric is unavailable on 3rd watch, Brian Wells should be contacted. Molly stated that it is ok to call her personal cell phone for this. Molly would also like to be able to have a conversation with the steward prior about communication in regards to the investigation.
5. Covering and Running Very Short Staffed in All Areas/Not Working Majority of Time in Bid Position a. AFSCME has been receiving many reports on 1 Security Counselor to a unit for long periods of time. Last Friday (Nov. 6th) or the week before that P1N had 1 staff for 4 hours, P2S had 1 staff for 2-3 hours, and 1 unit on Shantz had 1 staff for 4 hours. AFSCME said that it isn’t a question of if something bad happens, it is when. 1 person to 20-30 clients is not safe for that long. AFSCME pointed out that they have had many conversation agreeing with management that there should be 2 staff on a unit. b. Cafeteria coverage and silverware rolling has caused a unit on Shantz to be short 3 hours plus an additional hour for breaks. c. Tim Lokensgard said that he will do research on why this happened. He said that he knows staff get pulled for kitchen but would hope that would only be for 2 hours. Tim said that he would like to know the specifics. If this is happening please email Tim Lokensgard the details so it can be tracked why or why there wasn’t another overtime shift.
6. Contract Outcome – Rollout and Announcements a. The vote was a split 5-5. According to Council 5 that means that the contact for AFSCME did pass. Chris Hanson said that he was told this will go into effect December 1st and back pay for the 2.5% raise will be given December 24th from July 1st. b. Since we are then going back to vacation requests being 6 months in advance, the master language needs to be discussed. The Master Contract states that employees can ask off a year in advance if they are asking for 14 or more days. Nowhere does it say anything about not being able to rescind this time if approved. This could leave room for the contract to be abused. The question was asked how we will work with that. Molly Kennedy will be meeting with Tim Lokensgard to discuss this. This
7. MOAs on 3rd Round Bids on 2nd Watch a. Reassignments brought two different open 2nd watch spots. There will also be a reassignment for the 3rd round SCL position. This will not require an MOA because the facility cannot hire Lead’s off of the street. b. Because of the reassignments MSOP was unable to put a new employee in the new orientation class. Now it will be a stretch to get anyone hired for the December class. Three months have passed where someone could have been hired due to the dead bids but having reassignments filled by 2nd watch employees prevents this from happening. Should the MOA’s be limited to 3rd and 1st watches from now on? By leaving them open to all it could help someone on 2nd watch with Monday/Tuesday off get to a rotation.
8. Current AFSCME Positions and Vacancies a. The list will be sent to Molly Kennedy.
9. Joint Labor Management – Continuing to Have Them a. Molly Kennedy said that she talked to Moose Lake AFSCME and they would like to keep the Joint Labor Management meetings as well. AFSCME would like to have two a year. There is a meeting for December but AFSCME stated that they can forego that upon further discussion. Bonnie Wold stated that she would like to have further discussion with Kevin Moser.
10. Green Acres – Dropping Off and Picking Up Clients/Parking Spot a. At Green Acres East there was a parking spot in front for staff doing pick-ups but that is not designated for visitors because there is no client movement out of that door. AFSCME said that it would be nice for staff to have that spot. Liz Barbo said that she is willing to problem solve with the parking spot and that maybe there could be a spot in front of Green Acres West. She said that the campus is reluctant to give more reserved parking spots. Tim Lokensgard said that he can talk to Tom Christensen. If you have any ideas please contact Dr. Barbo. b. Clarification: When CPS clients are being dropped off at Shantz, should staff be walking in with them? What about clients who do not have privileges? Employees have heard a few different things. Liz Barbo said that she does not know for sure but will talk to Gary Tollefson and Michelle Sexe. One of them will email Molly Kennedy on a direction.
11. Job Coaches testing staff a. A direction was given to Job Coaches that they will be testing out their peers yearly on various modules (i.e. pat searches). AFSCME said that there is concern if we are the appropriate staff. This could pin staff against each other if someone were to fail their peer. Tim Lokensgard said that he is under the understanding that it is a refresher. This is to help an employee if he or she is not performing the module correct. This is intended to be an ongoing training. No one needs to be notified and this will not be seen as a performance issue. Troy Sherwood will follow up with Marie Hartman on this.
12. Media Calls a. Martiga Lohn (651-431-2729) or Sarah Berg (651-431-4901) should be contacted for any media calls received.
13. Outside calls for clients a. An outside call is received by Control Center asking for a client. For HIPPA purposes Control Center cannot confirm that client is in the facility but it is actually public knowledge. For example, an outside caller stating that they are the client’s lawyer cannot be confirmed that that is who the caller is. Control Center should give the outside caller the patient voicemail number first. If it is a lawyer their identity can be confirmed with the unit staff to make sure it is the lawyer on record. b. What about emergencies like death in the family? We could use some updating on scenarios like this. Patient voicemail is to be used unless it is an emergency. Troy Sherwood and Bonnie Wold will follow up. Media policy will be rolled into this as well.