March 8, 2006

Monthly TEA Meeting Agenda (Wed., March 15 noon 8th floor KSC)

1. Call to Order
2. Update on Transit & Wastewater Negotiations
3. Update on Grievances
4. Presentation of recommended Financial Plan
5. Report on Transit-Roads "loan-in" issue
6. Issues for the Good of the Order

Follow-up on Healthy Incentives Implementation

As members were warned repeatedly, the deadline has now passed for filling out the Wellness Assessment and being able to qualify for Gold level benefit costs (when and if negotiations include the Healthy Incentives plan and members vote for the contracts). If there were any extenuating circumstances where you could not complete it in time, please let either Bargaining Committee Chair or the TEA President know ASAP so we can attempt to appeal the deadline for you. In order to actually qualify for Gold, you will still have to either do the daily log or take coaching calls, depending on your assigned risk level.

Nominations for Grievance Committee Member Sought

According to the recently approved amendments in TEA's Bylaws, the Board appoints four members to the Grievance Committee for two-year terms (terms will overlap so that half of the committee members are appointed each year). This is a great opportunity for learning some of the nuts and bolts of labor contract issues, and is a relatively small time commitment but a very valuable contribution to TEA. Please contact Ade Franklin, Vice President (and Grievance Committee Chair) if interested. Thanks!

TEA Wastewater Contract Issues

Grievances:TEA asserts that a July 1, 2005 step should have been applied for all members, if the member was below step 10 at that time or as a result of their placement on the table. Members already on the County square table (i.e. those already "class/comped") as of July 1, 2005 were not awarded this step (if they were then below step 10) by HRD, and we filed a grievance to address that. The County has set up a meeting for March 16th to address this and we will update you after that. It is our understanding and expectation that this will be corrected, per the contract language.

A second issue related to moving TEA members onto the square table affects those members whose performance evaluation for 2005 was at least above standard (3.667), but less than outstanding (4.334) and who were at step 8 or 9 as a result of their placement onto the square table or those already on the square table at those steps. The King County Performance Appraisal and Merit Pay System Manual standard was applied, which required outstanding to earn merit. TEA asserts that the past practice of a wastewater specific merit system which only requires above standard to earn merit between mid-range and step 10 should have been applied, and we filed a grievance on that as well. We recently were informed that this is resolved with the County accepting our position.

Overtime and Holidays:For Wastewater members who work a Monday holiday and are also compensated for more than 40 hours in a pay week, there has been some confusion over the issue of time and a half pay. Two provisions of the contract are in play, one which requires work on a holiday to be paid at straight time, in addition to holiday pay, and another which requires compensated time in excess of 40 hours to be paid as overtime. Thus Monday holiday work is coded as 8 hours holiday pay (250) and 8 hours regular time (005). For the remainder of the week, continue to record time as regular until a total of 40 hours is reached, after which time should be recorded as overtime (010). This would be similar for mid-week holidays as well. In the last case, where a Holiday worked is on a Friday, if the total comes to more than 40, we don't know which provision would apply. Please avoid this if possible! If you work the Saturday after however, that could be counted as overtime (code 010) if the 40 hour threshold was exceeded.

TEA Transit Contract Issues

A letter has been sent to the State PERC (Public Employment Relations Commission) asking for PERC mediation in the contract negotiations, which has been agreed to by both TEA and the County. This likely means negotiations will await the assignment of a mediator before continuing.

March Meeting Schedule