SIGNIFICANT OUTCOMES OF NEGOTIATIONS
FOR 2014-15 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
AGREEMENTS
State Agency Administrative Services Directors
May 30, 2014
Jim Parry, Asst. General Counsel
Department of Management Services
Changes to Grievance Procedure
(Art. 6 – All Agreements)
• Business days replace calendar days for calculation
of all grievance time limits.
• Time spent by a grievant, a grievant’s union
representative, or a required witness in grievance
meetings, mediations, arbitration hearings, or
consultations during an employee’s regularly
scheduled workday is treated as time worked.
• Disciplinary grievances will now move from Step
2/agency to arbitration without DMS/Step 3 review.
(DMS will continue to review contract language
disputes at Step 3)
Changes to Grievance Procedure
(Art. 6 – All Agreements)
• Arbitration hearings are to be scheduled within five
months of filing with DMS.
• Evidentiary standard used by arbitrators is now
preponderance of the evidence, the same standard
used by PERC in addressing Career Service hearing
challenging cause for discipline.
• Costs for court reporters and transcripts at
arbitration hearings, including cost of court reporter
appearance and transcribing and copying a
transcript, are now allocated to the parties rather
than dealing with them on an ad hoc basis.
Changes to Grievance Procedure
(Art. 6 – All Agreements)
• Back Pay.
– Agency back pay liability ends at the point when a
union attorney receives a continuance for a
scheduled hearing, over the objection of the agency
attorney, for a period that extends more than five
months beyond the filing of the arbitration.
– Back pay award is to be reduced by the amount of
wages earned from other sources or by
reemployment assistance payments received.
– Back pay is not to be retroactive to a date earlier
than 15 days prior to the date the grievance was
filed.
Changes to Grievance Procedure
(Art. 6 – All Agreements)
• Effective dates for revisions to Article 6:
– Florida Nurses Assn., Fire Fighters, and the three SES
bargaining units (attorneys, physicians, and nonprofessional supervisors): upon ratification by the
bargaining unit members and the Governor (revisions
to Art. 6 were tentatively agreed to by the parties.)
– Three PBA units (Special Agent, FHP and law
enforcement), Teamsters (security services), and
AFSCME: July 1, 2014 (imposed by the Legislature as
the resolution of an impasse and will, therefore, be
effective July 1, 2014.)
Staffing Issue for Wildfires – Florida Forest
Service
• Fire Service Assn. proposal to require Forest
Service to deploy two firefighters to each
wildfire was not imposed at impasse.
Legislature imposed status quo, i.e. there will
continue to be no “Firefighter Safety” article
in this agreement (DMS had proposed some
substantive provisions regarding staffing and
safety, in an attempt to reach agreement with
the FSFSA, which also were not imposed.)
Performance Review/”Quota” Issue – PBA, all
Three Units
• Legislature imposed status quo language for each of the
three agreements, thereby leaving the current language in
place providing that “Numerical arrest, citation or
violation quotas will not be used as the primary factor in
reviewing employees’ performance.”
• PBA has reached agreement with all the law enforcement
agencies except DFS Insurance Fraud with respect to the
new SMART performance expectations for its bargaining
unit members.
• Additionally, Section 316.640, F.S., continues to require
FDLE, FWC and FHP to reach agreement with the PBA on
written performance standards related to traffic
enforcement activities which may not include traffic
citation quotas.
Special Compensatory Leave
• Legislature imposed status quo language in the PBA
agreements (did not adopt DMS proposal to remove
provision from PBA agreements allowing officers the
discretion to use newly-earned special comp leave
within 60 days of its accrual).
•
• Current provisions re Special Comp leave were
tentatively agreed to in all other Career Service
agreements except the Teamsters/Security Services
unit.
Special Compensatory Leave for Teamsters
Security Services Bargaining Unit
• Special compensatory leave earned on or after November 1, 2014:
• Leave credits for work performed in the employee’s assigned office,
facility, or region which is closed pursuant to an Executive Order of the
Governor or any other disaster or emergency condition to be used within
120 calendar days from the end of the work period in which the leave is
credited;
• Leave credits for work performed on a holiday or during a work period
that includes a holiday to be used each year by the April 30 or October
31 that immediately succeeds the work period in which credited,
whichever occurs earlier;
• Each agency shall schedule in a manner that ensures the leave credits are
used within the time limits; if the agency is unable to schedule within
these time limits, the agency shall extend for an additional 180 calendar
days;
• These credits shall be used prior to any pre-November 1, 2014 credits;
• Any leave credits remaining at the end of the extended period shall be
paid at the employee’s current regular rate of pay.
Special Compensatory Leave for Teamsters
Security Services Bargaining Unit
• Special compensatory leave earned prior to November 1, 2014:
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Agencies may require employees to reduce these balances pursuant to authority
in Rule 60L-34, F.A.C.;
Upon separation, an employee shall be paid for all pre-November 1, 2014 special
compensatory leave credits at their current regular rate of pay.
Any special compensatory leave hours that were forfeitable under provisions of
previous agreement remain forfeitable upon expiration of the applicable time
periods and are not eligible for payment.
Prior to using any annual or regular compensatory leave, an employee shall first
use any special compensatory leave credits earned on or after November 1, 2014,
and a minimum of 120 hours of special compensatory leave credits earned prior
to November 1, 2014, or a lesser number that reduces the balance to zero, in the
calendar year.
• Effective date: upon ratification by the Security Services bargaining unit
members and the Governor (revisions to Art. 23 were tentatively agreed to by the
parties.)
Extended Workday Limitations – Security
Services Unit (Article 23)
• Absent a compelling need, an employee working
a 12 hour shift will not be required to work an
extended shift of more than 16 continuous
hours, and will be provided at least 8 hours
between the extended shift and the following
shift.
• Effective date: upon ratification by the Security
Services bargaining unit members and the
Governor (revisions to Art. 23 were tentatively
agreed to by the parties.)
Health Insurance – Health Reimbursement
Accounts (all units)
• Legislature did not agree to the Governor’s
proposal to establish $600 Health
Reimbursement Accounts for all plan
participants. Health insurance articles remain
status quo.
Wages
• Governor’s proposal for Variable
Compensation Awards of $2500 or $5000 for
35% of employees was not funded by the
Legislature.
•
• Legislature provided a 5% base pay increase
to sworn law enforcement officers up to a
certain class level (not including corrections
officers) effective July 1, 2014.
Pay Adjustment Flexibility
• Section 8 (5)(i) of the GAA includes language that
authorizes agency heads, within their current
funding, to grant competitive pay adjustments to
address retention, pay inequities, or other staffing
issues. The agency is responsible for retaining
sufficient documentation justifying such
adjustments. This provision supersedes other
provisions in statute that have limited the ability of
agencies to make needed adjustments to a cohort of
positions.