Present: Bonnie Wold, Troy Sherwood, Amanda Mathiowetz, Tim Headlee, Zack Sowieja, Matt Stenger, Molly Kennedy, Adam Castle, Mike Homer, Eric Hesse
AFSCME AGENDA ITEMS
1. Lot draws and a new procedure • Because Cindy Jungers will be out of the office this will be tabled until MSH’s Meet & Confer on January 21st.
2. New scheduling program • The scheduling program is being piloted by Molly Kennedy and 8 other members. The OD’s are all using the new program. Molly asked if there is an anticipated roll out date. Management stated that there is not. Troy Sherwood touched base with John Haller and Tim Lokensgard. They are finding a large amount of work that needs to be done. • Matt Stenger stated that in MSH they are running into the issue with their program, Schedule Anywhere, counting denied hours of vacation towards their vacation audits along with days off. AFSCME wanted to make aware of the problem to avoid the same problem with the new program. We will be able to tap into SEMA4 so we will have pretty accurate balances.
3. Amount of work out of class positions • There is one WOC Building Maintenance Lead, which was posted today. There are two GMW positions WOC. 1 GMW position has been accepted by a new employee and they have received their start date. There is one WOC in Special Services and one as an OAS. One WOC MA1 will be starting at Green Acres. There is one WOC GS. A majority of those occupying the WOC positions are from the 2nd watch SC pool. Molly Kennedy stated that taking that much away from 2nd watch is leaving 1st watch feeling the effects.
4. Hiring SC positions • Currently there are 3 dead bids. 2 are on 3rd watch and 1 is on 1st watch. There are 2 MOA’s for 2nd watch. Management stated that they recognize most WOC’s are being filled by 2nd watch employees so with an upcoming WOC in the Education Department it will only be offered to 1st and 3rd watches. AFSCME asked why not do a WOC for a 2nd watch position. Management stated that that would be a lot of moving around. The vacancies leave room for up to 6 potential new hires.
5. Scheduling Committee • Management asks that as things come up it be brought to their attention. There is a Scheduling Committee and they did meet on Monday, January 11th. *Waiting on minutes from this meeting.
6. Utilizing SCL’s to call out people for OT when an inversing situation comes into play • There is a lot of inversing on 1st watch and the morale is down. Eric Hesse spoke about having the OD’s use the Advanced OT Sign-Up before inversing at last month’s meeting. Management stated that the OD’s are very busy so that would not be theasable. Eric suggested possibly having SCL’s help with making calls. This would be a good faith effort and could help boost the morale of 1st watch. It was suggested that an SCL, with the OD’s discretion, call people at home who were signed up on the Advanced OT sheet. This would help alleviate the burden. An SCL is not authorized to hand out OT but can make the call. Molly Kennedy stated that when a lot of people are inversed she will ask them if they want to stay and if not, she will call around and ask for the list of names signed up for advanced. Eric Hesse said that he would like to see the advanced list used before inversing. Right now the OD will only call those on subsequent. Bonnie Wold stated that she would like to see the employee that wants the OT be more proactive. AFSCME stated that there is an Inverse Call List but advanced because the employee will not waste their time calling those that did not want that date. AFSCME asked if the Advanced OT List could be printed to help those getting inversed. Zak Sowieja stated that that would be a good idea. Management stated that they did not know SC’s did not have access to the list electronically. Bonnie Wold stated that there is a concern about someone grieving not being on the printed advanced list if they signed up after it is printed. AFSCME stated that this is not contractual so a situation like that could not be grieved. Management stated that they wouldn’t be opposed to have an SCL in the OD office making calls for OT as well.
7. Union being notified of change of scheduling patterns as well (i.e., Special Services being put into 12-8:30 shifts) • It does say in the contract that when an employee’s schedule changes AFSCME needs to be notified along with the employee 28 days in advance. AFSCME stated that they are not always being notified. Management stated that that was not intentional.
8. Special Services schedules and being inversed • Molly Kennedy was asked by members in Special Services if inversing will be in their future with the new shifts. Molly asked if someone working 12-8pm called in sick, would the 8-4pm staff be inversed from 4-8pm. She stated that these are not 24/7 positions like SC’s. Molly gave the example of a clinician calling in sick, another clinician would not need to fill that position for the day. Human Resources will look into this and get back to AFSCME.
9. AFSCME Elections • There will be elections for the AFSCME Executive Board next Thursday, January 21st. AFSCME would like one voting location to be the Pexton Lobby from 6am – 2:40pm. Management stated that that would be alright.
MANAGEMENT AGENDA ITEMS
1. Policy Reviews/Changes • Shelby Richardson stated that if there is ever a question or input on a policy to contact Dave Bornus and he will get in touch with the policy chair. Management stated that they are always open to suggestions and it does not have to be exclusively at review time. Policies can be changed at any time. Molly Kennedy pointed out that AFSCME is not represented at the review committees. Troy Sherwood stated that they reached out to the Employee Engagement Committee to be a part of this because every department is represented in that committee. • Troy Sherwood stated that anyone has the opportunity to suggest an idea and can ask the drafting chair. Bonnie Wold stated that St. Peter is the only site that does not have a SC or SCL attend. Moose Lake’s SC pool is represented at each meeting. These meetings are held every Wednesday at 1pm in a 2nd floor Pexton Conference Room. Previously a SC from Moose Lake did give a suggestion that was implemented.
2. Data Request • A client has requested to obtain all files on all staff. Management stated that recently there was a check-in meeting to discuss the process. There will be a reminder on the homepage yearly (similar to the sick leave reminder) about the Data Policy. This is intended to be a trigger for members or anyone to review their supervisory file. A good practice would be to ask for it at your review.
3. St. Peter Forum • The forums will be February 10th.
4. Bi-Weekly Meeting with AFSCME • Management had a meeting on Tuesday and discussed having bi-weekly meetings with AFSCME. Bonnie Wold stated that they thought it would be beneficial to have an informal meeting consisting of Troy Sherwood, Tim Lokensgard, Eric Hesse, and Molly Kennedy to talk about the issues and concerns from management and the members to stay ahead and be proactive. • Part of the reason behind this is the issue with short staffing. Units were complaining about having 1 staff for hours at a time. Bonnie Wold stated that they did some fact finding and stated that they did not find that the units were running short for hours at a time. She stated that it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, just that they didn’t see it. Anytime an OD needs to pull from a unit for a few hours they need to call the Admin on Call for that. AFSCME stated that maybe management didn’t see it but the members are not making it up. Management stated that they are not saying it didn’t happen. It wasn’t authorized when they looked into it. Molly Kennedy stated that maybe it wasn’t authorized. Management stated that that hasn’t happened for a very long time. Bonnie stated that rather than be to the point of a petition they would like to stay ahead of it. • Management stated that we can start with having the informal meetings bi-weekly and if less are needed, we will go from there. The status of what was discussed will still be discussed at Labor Management. Troy Sherwood stated that there are large projects coming up, one being the Community Living Project, that will take a lot of staffing. He stated that he would like to look at things like that as well. It would be items to problem solve on the front end. Troy stated that they are working on adjusting the amount of pat searches done and that priority 1 is keeping resources on the unit.