OSEA Bargaining Session Update: September 19, 2018

The twelfth bargaining session between Oregon School Employees Association (OSEA) and Reynolds School District (RSD) was held on September 19, 2018 at Woodland Elementary School from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. 

OSEA & District Attendance:  All team members present for both teams

The District presented a package proposal which included the following articles:

Article 4 – Fringe Benefits

The District has changed its last proposal to keep the CAP status quo for 2018-19 as the open enrollment period has ended and changes to selections are no longer allowable without a qualifying event.  The District proposes increases to the CAP in the second and third years of the agreement as follows:

Year 1 (2018-19) = No Change

Year 2 (2019-20) = $25

Year 3 (2020-21) = $35

These increases, in total over the three years of the agreement, continue to be higher than those recently agreed to with REA which were $15 in each of the three years.

The District’s proposal also continues to include language to step down the use of remaining dollars toward the purchase of supplemental insurances, similar to the agreement reached with REA, in support of its goal to contribute only toward the major insurances (medical, dental, and vision) and not continue contributing toward supplemental insurances.  To help with this transition, the District has increased the district provided life insurance from $20,000 to $50,000 in the second and third years of the contract as it is now too late to change the life insurance policy for 2018-19.

Article 8 – Salary

The District proposes a three-year salary schedule that includes the following:

Year 1 (2018-2019)

• Drop Step 1 and add a new Step 11 which is 3% higher than the current top step.
• Step Increases
• No smoothing or COLA applied to the salary schedule.
• Move Bus Drivers from the current IIB classification to the MECH I classification.

Year 2 (2019-2020)

• 1% COLA over the 2018-2019 schedule
• Step Increases
• No smoothing applied to the salary schedule

Year 3 (2020 – 2021)

• 1% COLA over the 2019-2020 schedule
• Step Increases
• 4% smoothing applied to the entire salary schedule
• Adjustment to Column IA, Step 1 to adjust for new minimum wage.

The District proposes new language indicating that Bus Drivers who are in cover driver positions shall receive a one dollar per hour pay differential.

The District does not accept OSEA’s proposal for the work hours of Media Assistants and Educational Assistants to be increased by .25 hours per day for the duration of the contract.

The District does not accept OSEA’s proposed language which requires the district to apply 30% of any additional non-capital revenue, identified after July 1, 2018 to the wages and benefits of bargaining unit employees.  The union and the district will meet to negotiate how to apply the additional revenue to wages and benefits.

All other language changes including automated timekeeping, bilingual differential, compensatory time, cell phone stipend, and overnight trip pay remain as previously proposed.  The District agreed that it would consider changes to the language regarding deadlines for the use of compensatory time which it did not include in its proposal although it had been previously discussed and is agreed to in principal.

Article 12 - Association Union Rights

The District responded to OSEA’s request to reopen this article on August 27^th as a result of the Janus ruling with agreement to add language related to providing announcements at staff meetings and lists of employee contact information on an annual basis.  The District had previously agreed to language related to time release for association members to attend conferences and union sponsored programs.  The District inadvertently neglected to include a response but agrees in principal with OSEA’s request to allow the union to utilize the services of the District Courier to deliver materials for distribution to members’ mailboxes so long as they are not burdensome in quantity or detrimental to work operations, or delivered to individual mailboxes during work time.

Article 26 – Workplace and Environmental Safety (new article)

The District’s response to OSEA’s proposed new language largely remains as previously proposed with language regarding the process to be followed when it is believed there are unsafe working conditions present; confirmation there will be a safety committee at each work site; and, the process to be followed when there is believed to have been a safety violation.  The District added one new component to the proposal related to having two OSEA representatives serve on the current District Behavior Response Committee which meets monthly during the school year to review the District’s student discipline procedures, to recommend changes it feels would be in the best interest of the District, and to provide quarterly reports to the School Board.

The District does not adopt OSEA’s proposal which gives employees who have suffered an injury due to attack, assault, overt physical violence or inappropriate physical contact from a student the right to refuse to work with 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.

Tentative Agreements Reached:

No Tentative Agreements were reached at this session.

An agenda was not set for the next session. At this time, the remaining open articles are as follows:

The session concluded at 6:00 p.m.

Upcoming Bargaining Dates Scheduled as follows:

Woodland Elementary School Library:

Monday, October 1^st – 4:30 to 8:00 p.m.