- Swaps and mutuals: we discussed extending the time allotted to work a mutual with the Deputy Commissioner and the AME Executive Board is going to follow up with Labor Relations to get this done.
- Uniforms: Two issues here
a. Where are we on the Clothing Cleaning allowance? Is there any hope of getting this taken care of in the near future our members are very frustrated with the fact that we have been in uniform for 3 years and were promised the higher amount that is given to all other Dispatchers in the County and we are still getting the lower amount. This issue is still unresolved and the Executive Board is looking to find a way to resolve it to our satisfaction. There seemed to be some confusion as to the status of the greivance that I have been told was filed.
b. Uniforms in general, we have discussed a few options on changes to them or doing away with them completely, for now we are keeping what we have the feeling being that we have already given part of our pay why should we now give up the little bit of extra we get for a clothing allowance and have to go and spend money on clothes to wear to work that will be ruined by the dirt and equipment at HQ.
Teletype: We have talked with most of the members of teletype and while I had them do a poll on whether they would want to move into the Police Emergency Unit and it was unanimous that they would prefer to be part of our unit due only to the fact that there is always a rep available for them if needed on our floor and that they are under the same supervisors and rules as the members of our unit. We will be double checking with teletype members to insure this is still what they want and moving forward on the paper work if indeed it is.
- Comp time accruals: Not that this is a major issue right now however a while ago Cheryl sent a letter to Commissioner Dormer regarding the limit of Comp time accruals for our members, that it should be 480 hours not the 240 hours based on our work as emergency services personnel we will be makin sure that this is taken care of. While not an issue now, it maybe come an issue down the road and we want to insure our members recieve what they are entitled to.
- X-days: This issue has several sides to it and AME President Felice has asked that the Unit Board sit down with the Executive Board as soon as possible to work on this issue. The two biggest issues with the X-days is that our members work more days than any other County Employee, and the fact that our members at times are working over a 40 hour work week and are not paid for overtime as per FLSA and the departments own directive #97-08. We feel strongly that the wording of the MOA needs to be revisited and of course their ultimate hope is to make them go away completely and I will keep you up to date on any progress with this issue. Our members should also be aware that it has been indicated to me that the Captain is not particularly pleased with the current scheduling of the x-days overall and he believes that when scheduled for training employees should attend, or they should be scheduled for a full workday on the floor, in accordance with the contract, on days that are beneficial to the Communications Section as a whole including the individual employee. It would be my belief that unless negotiated otherwise with AME that if indeed the Department went back to scheduling full workdays rather than training days, that the original chart attached to the MOA would need to be followed as a guide to spacing the days evenly over the course of the work year, it is our belief that the original chart was created and included with the MOA in order to protect our members from being forced to work six extra days all during the course of the summer or other times when staffing would be lower based on vacation patterns or on holidays where there is an increase in call volume.
- Jury duty and overtime for the employees hired after 2006, this issue needs to be addressed further.
- Chairs: While there are new chairs on the floor we did discuss the fact that they are not truly suited for 24 hour use and the Executive Board is looking into if there are any actions we may take to insure suitable chiars are purchased.
- Overtime there are a few issues here: there are many ECOs and PSDs who wish to file a grievance regarding the PSD IIs in our rotation for overtime. As our contract calls for the equal opportunity for overtime in same or similar job titles, the feeling is that PSD IIs are getting three opportunities as opposed to the one opportunity available to an ECO and the two that are available to a PSD. We are working on establishing a committee with in our unit to address the overtime issues, if anyone would be interested please contact Suzanne McBride.
- Command band closure on midnights see leter from AME President Cheryl Felice.