Decision and Dismissal of Complaint
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STATE OF CONNECTICUT LABOR DEPARTMENT CONNECTICUT STATE BOARD OF LABOR RELATIONS IN THE MATTER OF STATE OF CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION DECISION NO. 5067 -AND- APRIL 26, 2019 LOCALS 387, 391 & 1565 OF NP-4 UNIT OF COUNCIL 4, AFSCME, AFL-CIO Case No. SPP-32,504 A P P E A R A N C E S: Attorney Adam Garelick for the State Attorney J. William Gagne, Jr. for the Union DECISION AND DISMISSAL OF COMPLAINT On November 17, 2016, the NP-4 unit of Council 4, AFSCME, AFL- CIO (the Union) filed a complaint with the Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations (the Labor Board) alleging that the State of Connecticut Department of Correction (the State) had violated the State Employee Relations Act (SERA or the Act) by making unilateral changes to established practices governing training-related overtime for correction officers. After the requisite preliminary steps had been taken, the parties came before the Labor Board for a hearing on July 11, 2018 and September 26, 2018. Both parties were represented, afforded a full opportunity to adduce evidence, examine and cross-examine witnesses and make argument. Both parties filed briefs which were received on December 4, 2018. On the basis of the entire record before us, we make the following findings of fact and conclusions of law and we dismiss the complaint. FINDINGS OF FACT 1. The State is an employer within the meaning of the Act. 2. The Union is an employee organization within the meaning of the Act and at all relevant times has represented a unit (NP-4) comprised of certain employees of the Department of Correction (DOC), including employees in the job classification of correction officer. 3. At all times relevant hereto, the State and the Union have been parties to a series of collective bargaining agreements covering the NP-4 Unit. The latest such collective bargaining agreement, effective July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2016, states, in relevant part: ARTICLE 8 TRAINING Section 1. Relevant Training. The Employer recognizes the need to provide relevant … on-the-job training. … Section 4. Scheduling Training. Training will be scheduled during normal working hours when, in management’s judgment, it is practical to do so. Training required by the State in addition to regular duty time shall be considered time worked for overtime purposes, except as provided otherwise... … ARTICLE 12 GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE Section 1. Definition of Grievance. A grievance is defined as, and limited to, a written complaint involving an alleged violation or dispute involving the application or interpretation of a specific provision of this Agreement. … ARTICLE 14 HOURS OF WORK AND WORK SCHEDULES Section 1. Work Week. … All employees shall be scheduled to work a regular shift as determined by the appointing authority… Section 2. Continuous Operations. Employees in continuous operations as defined below will have a regularly scheduled work week… … Correction Officer … Section 3. Changes in Schedules. Insofar as possible, changes in work schedules will be made with a minimum of two (2) weeks’ notice to the employee affected by a work schedule change, except when changes are 2 necessary due to emergency situations, in accordance with present practice. … ARTICLE 15 OVERTIME … Section 2. Voluntary Overtime Distribution. All employees wanting to work voluntary overtime will sign a quarterly overtime list. Overtime will be distributed in accordance with either section A. or B. below. … B. “Sign-up Book” System. The sign-up book will contain pages representing each day of each month, separated into three sections representing each shift worked by employees in continuous operations… … 2) Quarterly List. Only employees who have signed the quarterly overtime list will be allowed to place their names in the sign-up book during that quarter. 3) Supervisor to Use Book. When a supervisor needs to fill a vacancy with overtime, he/she will refer to the sign-up book and call the staff member with the least number of overtime hours for that quarter who has signed the book for that day and shift. … 5) Exhaustion of List. When the daily sign-up has been exhausted the quarterly overtime list shall be utilized, beginning with the employee with the least number of hours. Once the quarterly overtime list has been exhausted the employer shall first seek volunteers prior to employees being involuntarily held over. … Section 9. Overtime Holdover. An employee is held over if he/she is drafted and assumes a post on the shift subsequent to his/her own shift … When a designated work unit requires overtime holdover (i.e., draft) it shall be accomplished by inverse class seniority utilizing staff on duty from the previous shift including those staff currently on a single overtime shift on their day off… … ARTICLE 17 COMPENSATION … Section 6. Night Shift Differential. All employees who are in this bargaining unit and who are eligible to receive shift differential in accordance with current practice and whose assigned work shift begins any time after 2:00 p.m. and before 6:00 a.m. shall receive a night differential of … ninety (90) cents per hour… 3 (Ex. 5). 4. At all times relevant hereto, the DOC has operated at least 15 correctional facilities1 in Connecticut that maintain three work shifts per day, seven days per week. Correction officers assigned to those facilities are considered to be in “continuous operation” within the meaning of Article 14 of the collective bargaining agreement and typically work 5-days on, 3-days off (5/3 schedule). Staff working in assignments which are not in continuous operation typically work Monday through Friday (5/2 schedule) on the first shift. (Exs. 5, 10). 5. At all times relevant hereto, DOC has provided department-wide in-service training (IST) as well as more limited facility-specific training to its employees, including NP-4 bargaining unit members. 6. Prior to 1999, DOC has offered IST on the first shift or the first and second shifts and allowed employees working other shifts the option of working their regular hours on overtime in addition to attending off-shift training. 7. On July 15, 1999, the Union filed a grievance (No. 08-7134) alleging that permitting employees to work their own shift on overtime violated Article 8, Section 4 of the contract. That grievance was sustained on February 10, 1999. (Exs. 20, 21). 8. In or about 2000, and in response to grievance No. 08-7134, DOC no longer allowed employees scheduled for off-shift training to work their regular shifts on overtime. Rather, DOC provided IST on the first and second shifts and assigned employees who regularly worked those shifts to training in lieu of other work assignments. Employees who worked on the third shift were temporarily reassigned to first or second shift2 to attend training. 9. Since at least 2004, DOC has scheduled IST on the first shift and temporarily transferred employees working second and third shifts to the first shift to attend training. Receipt of overtime by employees attending training and working adjacent shifts, however, varies depending on the facility and the circumstances. For example: Correction officer Hoai Le (Le) was temporarily transferred from his regular third shift assignment at the Hartford Correctional Center to first shift to attend IST training on January 15, 2015. On January 15, 2015, Le voluntarily worked his regular third shift assignment and then attended IST training from 8:00 a.m. to 1 Bridgeport Correctional Center; Brooklyn Correctional Institution; Cheshire Correctional Institution; Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center; Enfield Correctional Institution; Garner Correctional Institution; Hartford Correctional Center; MacDougall-Walker Correction Institution; Manson Youth Institution; New Haven Correctional Center; Northern Correctional Institution; Osborn Correctional Institution; Robinson Correctional Institution; Willard-Cybulski Correctional Institution; and York Correctional Institution. (Exs. 10-11). 2 In September 1999, the Union filed a grievance (No. 08-7502) and a prohibited practice complaint (SPP- 21,191) on behalf of members at the Manson Youth Institution contesting the State’s decision to prohibit third shift staff from working their regular shift on overtime on training days. The State prevailed in the resulting arbitration and prohibited practice proceedings. (Exs. 8, 18, 19). 4 4:00 p.m. DOC paid Le at his regular rate for working third shift and overtime for attending IST training. (Ex. 9). Correction officer Susan Watson (Watson) was temporarily transferred from her regular third shift assignment at York Correctional Institution to first shift to attend IST training on November 1, 2016. On November 1, 2016, Watson voluntarily worked her regular third shift assignment and then attended IST training from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. DOC paid Watson at her regular rate for working third shift and overtime for attending IST training. (Ex. 13). On November 28, 2016, correction officers Angel Irizarry (Irizarry) and Anthony Jusseaume (Jusseaume) attended IST training during their regular first shift assignments at the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center and were paid at their regular rate. Correction officer Friedel Zegarzewski attended the same training on what was otherwise his regular scheduled day off and was paid overtime. (Ex. 12). Correction officer Richard Wauthier was temporarily reassigned from his regular second shift assignment at Cheshire Correctional Institution to attend firearms training on July 2, 2018. Wauthier attended the training and was then held over to work part of the second shift. DOC paid at his regular rate for attending the training and overtime for working part of the second shift. (Ex. 14). 9. Between January 1, 2016 and January 1, 2018, York Correctional Institution paid 66.5% of its total staff training hours in overtime while at Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center, Hartford Correctional Center, and Cheshire Correctional Institution, respectively, paid 59.4%, 45.8%, and 27.81% of their total staff training hours in overtime.