September 2011

Senior Field Representative
Mary Blanco

Grievances Must be Filed Timely

There is a Dispute Resolution Procedure provision in all contracts administered by SEBA. If you believe a provision of the contract has been violated, you must contact your field representative as soon as possible to insure your grievance is filed timely. If not, the County will determine that the grievance is procedurally deficient and decline to address the violation. Therefore, in most cases if you do not file timely you will not be able to remedy the violation.

An example of a violation that cannot be remedied involved the Reemployment provision of the Specialized Peace Officer Unit agreement. It states that a regular employee who separates from County employment and is rehired into the same classification and begins work between the 91st day and the 365th calendar day after separation may receive restoration of his/her salary step, vacation accrual, sick leave balance if any, and Retirement Plan contribution rate (under certain conditions) upon approval of the Human Resources Director or designee. In one particular case, the Probation Corrections Officer failed to request approval so his vacation accrual rate decreased. He called SEBA four months later to complain but because he had exceeded the time frame to file a grievance he and SEBA were unable to remedy the situation.

A recent example of a violation that can be remedied is the Merit Advancements provision for the Specialized Peace Officer Unit. A Probation Corrections Officer called and stated that his supervisor had not completed his Work Performance Evaluation (WPE). The WPE was four months overdue and because of this he had not received his merit increase. The contract requires that the supervisor complete the WPE within six pay periods prior to the employee’s step advance due date for an employee not receiving the top step of their salary range. If this is not done, the employee shall contact the departmental payroll specialist who shall contact the supervisor. The supervisor then has 15 working days to complete the WPE. If the evaluation is still not completed within the specified time frame, the employee must contact the Human Resources Officer who will direct that the WPE be completed within 30 workdays. If the WPE is still not completed, the employee shall be granted the merit step increase retroactive to the original step advance eligibility date.

I do not expect you to remember all these steps. However, if you call me I will guide you through the process. This is an example of a violation that will eventually be remedied as long as the employee receives a “meets standard” evaluation.

This article focuses on the timely filing of grievances, but timeliness is also important when appealing discipline. That is the reason why it is so important that you contact your field representative if you are served with a proposed disciplinary notice.

In addition, when there is a change to your terms and conditions of employment, you need to call us right away. SEBA may be able to establish that a past practice exists and prevent the County from implementing the proposed change.