OSEA Bargaining Session Update: May 29, 2018

The seventh bargaining session between Oregon School Employees Association (OSEA) and Reynolds School District (RSD) was held on May 29, 2018 in the library at Woodland Elementary School from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

OSEA & District: Chris Greenhalgh, District Bargaining Team, absent.

OSEA Presented the Following Counter Proposals:

Article 2 – District Rights + MOU No Contracting Out (Package Proposal) – OSEA counter proposal is current contract language, accompanied by a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreeing not to contract out work for the duration of the three-year contract (MOU is the same language as the MOU that has been signed on an annual basis for the last several years).

Article 11 – Work Time – OSEA counter proposal maintains proposed language in B. Workday to state, “Work time starts when employees start work duties.” This language adopted in a prior counter by the District. Proposal retains current language regarding specific references to days in specific work calendars in C. Work Year. OSEA adopts district proposed language that employees who work between four and one half (4 ½) hours and less than six (6) hours may waive their lunch breaks for the entire work year upon mutual agreement with their supervisors. OSEA maintains proposed language in F. Rest Periods indicating that rest periods may not be added to the meal period or deducted from the beginning or end of the work shift in order to reduce the length of the work shift or be waived or used to adjust work; the addition of the BOLI chart showing required rest breaks and meal periods based on shift length; and District proposed language indicating that employees who work at multiple worksites must take their rest periods at the work site presently being worked at and that additional time will not be provided to travel to alternate locations before beginning the rest period.

OSEA continues to propose new language indicating that employees may request assistance from their supervisors in establishing or adjusting work priorities to carry out his or her work assignment and that the employee may request a written response from the supervisor. New language also proposed that indicates, “other duties as assigned” shall be tasks that are not described in the job description and shall be defined as infrequent and at irregular intervals. “Other duties as assigned” is not intended to describe routine tasks.

Article 12 – Association Rights – OSEA did not adopt the District’s language regarding the District not accepting responsibility for the replacement of personal cell phones under E. Property Loss. OSEA did not adopt the District’s proposal regarding the addition of the health and safety language as they feel it belongs in a separate, stand-alone article. OSEA deleted its originally proposed language regarding the provision for clean, staff only restrooms. OSEA’s proposed language regarding Time Release for Association members remains and has been adopted by the District in a prior counter proposal.

New Article – Health and Safety - OSEA continues to propose the language from its initial proposal to add a new article devoted to health and safety. The article includes provisions to maintain a safe work environment, safety committees, and that employees who are required to work in any hazardous situation be provided proper training for such duties to be paid for by the District. Employees shall have the right to refuse to put themselves in immediate danger created by unsafe working conditions and shall be assigned to another location of duty while the condition is being investigated and/or corrected. Employees shall not be required to complete work without proper safety equipment.

Employees who have suffered an injury due to attack, assault, overt physical violence or inappropriate physical contact from a student shall have the right to refuse to work with the student(s) until such time as the employee, union, principal and/or program director have met, conferred, and reached a reasonable solution to the issue.

A Safety Committee shall be formed which shall annually review and establish procedures related to school safety and communication to classified employees to provide appropriate awareness of situations and/or students which could disrupt the educational environment.

At the request of a classified employee, the employee shall be included in an IEP conference for individual students with whom the employee works directly. And, at the request of any IEP team member, an appropriate classified employee shall be included as a member of the IEP team in accordance with OAR 581-015-2210.

District Presented the Following Counter Proposals:

Article 7 – Emergency Closure - District’s proposal does not adopt OSEA’s language related to being paid for inclement weather days without having to use leave in exchange for not being paid to work any make-up days at the end of the year and instead continues to propose that rather than granting one additional emergency day if all emergency days were used for inclement weather closure, the District would grant two additional emergency days under these circumstances for the reasons outlined as acceptable uses of emergency leave in Article 5 – Paid Leaves of Absence.

Article 18 – Funding – The District continues to propose that if the contractual work year is reduced for the other work groups as part of a district-wide budget reduction then the district may reduce the number of work days for classified employees by the same number of days as the other work groups. Prior to taking such action, the District shall meet with the Association to discuss the impact and implementation of the reduction and the Association shall have the opportunity to present alternatives to a shortened work year.

Tentative Agreements Reached:

Article 14 – Seniority/Layoff/Recall – Maintains current contract language with one minor addition: E. Recall will now include language to indicate that employees who have bumped into another position shall have the right to return to his/her original classification in line with his/her seniority in that classification group “so long as his/her documented qualifications meet the job description qualifications for the position.”

Article 19 – Discipline, Dismissal, and Performance – Current contract language maintained to include verbal warnings and new language added regarding conducting a fair and objective investigation and making available all information forming the basis for any disciplinary action, including audio and video evidence.

Article 21 – Transportation – A small work group from Transportation reviewed this article together. Tentative Agreement includes the agreed upon language from that small group’s work. Language changes include changing the Average Hour guidelines to include additional minutes to pick up keys and prepare for routes and noted minutes for pre-trips and layovers, the addition of overnight trip pay language, and some other changes to clean up the Assignment Guidelines language to reflect current practices.

Article 26 – Early Retirement – Article deleted as all provisions have sunset.

An agenda was not set for the next session.

The session concluded at 8:05 p.m.

Upcoming Bargaining Dates Scheduled as follows:

Woodland Elementary School Library: