Latest Breaking News
In reply to the discussion: Court allows Trump to end union bargaining for federal workers [View all]BumRushDaShow
(158,685 posts)the MAIN (and very important) issues for negotiation were -
1.) Flexitime - i.e., the "working" day time range, with "core hours" (when all employees needed to be on the clock), where we eventually ended up with a 6:00 am - 6:00 pm "day", with employees options for arriving at 6:00 am (earliest, which was mostly a HQ thing), and 9:30 am (10:00 am for HQ, the latest arrival), with a depart time of 2:30 pm (earliest HQ) or 3:00 pm (most others), to 6:00 pm (most) or 6:30 pm (HQ). My office ended up with a 6:30 am - 3:00 pm range.
The "core hours" were 10:00 am - 2:00 pm (ET - adjusted through timezones, although those outside of ET were often stuck with "way too early" conference calls scheduled by the east coasters )
2.) Flexiplace - this was the "Work at Home" / "remote work" option (where there was also "hoteling" in HQ where they would go to some designated network-configured location to work)
3.) Timekeeping - I know at one time, some of our district offices had literal physical time cards that would need to be used with a punch clock for arrival/departure time stamps. This was not across the board (my office just had a "sign in book" for arrival/departure times). So eventually the punch cards went away, replaced by sign-in books, and eventually the whole system was automated for timekeeping (including incorporating the employees' selected "work schedule" time frame per the Flexitime agreement).
4.) Credit Hours - a biggy when I was first in the union early in my career where the option was heavily bargained, and was finally made available. It allowed an employee to work extra hours (up to a fixed amount per pay period - I think it was 10 hours) and be able to be used that time as the equivalent of annual leave, but it would not have been considered "overtime" (which would have required extra pay for the extra hours over 40 hours/week or 80 hours per pay period). IIRC, there was a max that could be earned (I think 24) before it needed to be used if any additional credit hour work was desired.
5.) Office space - this was particularly notable when an office moved within a building moved to a new building and/or if there was a renovation going on and/or new cubicles/workstations were being procured and installed, where the union could bargain on how much space each employee (who was not already in an individual office) would be allocated to make it "fair".
6.) Subsidized transit - that was something the national chapter was able to obtain, where employees who used public transit to get to work would get reimbursed for some portion of the monthly cost.
7.) Training (and training opportunities, including conference attendance, etc) - mostly to thwart favoritism and allow reasonable seniority considerations versus need to get newer employees up and running
So there ARE things to "bargain" - notably things related to "working conditions" and "employee advancement" (through training), which are beyond "salary/benefits" (which are guided by law).
THAT is "the truth".
Edit history
Recommendations
1 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):