COUNTY OF SAN MATEO
HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT
Inter-Departmental Correspondence
DATE: April 21, 2014
TO: All Management Employees
FROM: Nicole McKay, Employee & Labor Relations Manager
SUBJECT: Employee Relations Bulletin Bulletin 24 Guidance: “Meet and Confer” Obligations and Process
This memo describes and provides guidance regarding the process for meeting and conferring with employee organizations when there is a rule or workplace change that impacts that organization’s employees. The Employee & Labor Relations Division is available for consultation from the initiation of this process to conclusion. Please consult with Employee & Labor Relations whenever you initiate a change in order to determine if you must or should notice employee organizations and/or meet and confer.
WHAT IS “MEET AND CONFER?”
As part of the County’s relationship with the employee organizations, and as required by California law, management must provide reasonable advance written notice to employee organizations whenever it intends to implement a rule or workplace change that will likely affect employees in that department or unit. San Mateo County has incorporated this requirement into each of its Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs).
At the employee organization’s request, management has the obligation to meet and confer regarding the matter before implementation occurs, even if you have involved the employees in developing the planned changes and they are in agreement.
WHO IS COVERED?
All County Departments and Divisions are covered and these guidelines should be considered and used by all County management staff. One or more employee organizations may be involved, depending on the issue and which employees are likely to be affected.
WHAT IS THE IDENTIFYING TRIGGER?
The need to provide employee organization(s) with advance notice and an opportunity to “meet and confer” is triggered anytime the management of a department or sub-unit of a department plans to make a workplace change, and that change is likely to affect represented employees in some manner, even if the represented employees have agreed to the change. Workplace changes include issues involving wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.
Some examples of common situations that would trigger the need to notify employee organizations and meet and confer if requested, include the following:
- Establishing or adjusting a departmental sick leave policy
Example: Management would like to implement a rule that all employees in the unit bring in a doctor’s note whenever they call in sick on a Friday or a Monday.
- Changing a unit’s working hours
Example: Management would like to change the “closing time” of an office from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. two days per week.
- Establishing or adjusting an alternative work schedule
Example: Management wants to establish a 9/80 workweek in place of the traditional 40-hour workweek as a means to better service its customers.[1]
- Establishing a pay rate for a new assignment
Example: Two staff need to receive special licensure to carry out new wastewater treatment duties that is typically paid higher in the market.
(HR handles all wage issues, and you should contact HR at the earliest opportunity).
- Establishing or adjusting performance standards
Example: Management wants to establish standards for the quality or quantity of work to be performed.
Not all changes trigger meet and confer obligations. The County’s Employer-Employee Relations Policy states that “the County retains the exclusive right to determine the methods, means, and personnel by which County government operations are to be conducted.” Decisions to make these types of changes are not subject to meet and confer. However, the County is still required to notify the union(s) of the change and meet and confer over the impact of the change. For example, a change in your computer system has the result of certain employees being required to enter and write their own reports, replacing the old method of support staff doing this work for them. While the computer change itself does not require notice to employee organizations, the impactthe change may have on those employees being required to enter their own data and write reports does require notice to employee organizations.
While the above examples are helpful, they are not exhaustive. Departments should contact their Employee Relations representative in HR for guidance any time a change is contemplated.
WHAT DO WE DO IF WE DECIDE TO MAKE A CHANGE?
After consulting with Employee & Labor Relations, notify the employee organization(s) of the change in writing. The notice should describe the proposed change in detail and explain why the change is being planned. The written notice should be sent a minimum of four weeks before the proposed implementation date, providing two weeks for the employee organization(s) to receive the letter and decide if they want to meet, and at least two additional weeks to schedule a meeting or meetings. In cases involving major or complex changes, more time should be allowed as multiple meetings may be necessary.
A sample letter is attached for you to use as a guide.
If not contacted by the employee organization(s), implement the change. If contacted by an employee organization, set a mutually agreeable date and time to meet.
WHAT DO WE DO TO PREPARE FOR THE MEETING?
It is important that you adequately prepare so that you present yourself at the meeting as being organized and knowledgeable about the specifics of the change and the reasons for the change. It is essential that management be able to explain the issue that is generating the need for the change.
We recommend that prior to the meeting you develop a document (or chart) that illustrates how the unit operates now, and how the unit will operate after the change. You might use separate pages for each or do a side-by-side comparison chart. Additionally, you should list the primary reasons for the change, and the benefits to the department or unit attributable to the proposed change, as well as any benefits to the affected employees.
You will have the most success with the implementation if any potential issues are resolved beforehand. Remember that the union may present facts or issues that you had not considered. Anticipating and troubleshooting potential faults or problems with the proposed plan is helpful. For example, put yourself in the place of the employees and the union, and analyze the proposed change from their perspective.
WHO ATTENDS THE MEETING?
You can expect a union representative, the union steward and one or more affected employees to attend. The union gets to select which employees attend, and often employees selected may not be those that will be directly impacted. Management can object to the number of employees if it impacts coverage or other operational needs.
Management may have one or more representatives attend. Generally, Department Heads do not attend as they might be required to review any final decision that is made. Management also has the option of asking Employee & Labor Relations to send a representative to attend.
WHAT DO WE DO AT THE MEETING?
Start the meeting by explaining the proposed change and the reasons for the change. You should use the comparison document you prepared as a guide to assist you in explaining the change, and you might also prepare an outline of the plan to share with those in attendance.
It is essential to remember that you must participate in this meeting in good faith. The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, governing management-labor relationships in California local governments, mandates that you shall have the “obligation personally to meet and confer promptly upon request” and “continue for a reasonable period of time in order to exchange freely information, opinions, and proposals, and to endeavor to reach agreement on matters within the scope of representation.”
The representative(s) may ask questions during your presentation. It is appropriate to answer questions that you feel comfortable answering. It is also appropriate to respond by saying that you’ll have to research the question asked and that you will get back to them. It is essential that you do then get back to the representative(s) with the answers.
After you have completed your presentation, the employee organization representative(s) may offer their opinion on your proposal and present alternative suggestions. It is important to listen to their point of view. The employee organization may present facts or issues that you had not considered. Also, if an alternate approach is presented that meets your stated goals, you must fairly consider it and adopt it unless it involves additional costs or results in operational problems.
The union may also say they need to consider the proposal, and ask to schedule another meeting to present their response. Always schedule this next meeting and agree to a date at the time it is proposed, ensuring that the process moves forward. Call Employee & Labor Relations for guidance any time an employee organization cancels a meeting at the last minute, or appears to be delaying or slowing down the process.
Always take what the employee organization(s) representative(s) say under advisement and assure those at the meeting that you will get back to them. You should not become argumentative at the table, and only commit to changes at the table that you are sure are within County and Departmental management parameters. The decision to make changes or implement as originally planned should usually be made only after a subsequent meeting with management, and where appropriate, Employee & Labor Relations.
WHAT DO WE DO AFTER THE MEET AND CONFER?
Meet with upper management and/or HR to finalize the plan. Analyze proposed changes and alternatives that were made at the meeting, and incorporate them if they allow you to reach your objective without incurring excess cost or experiencing operational problems.
In your file, document the specific reasons why any proposed change/alternative has not been incorporated into the plan. This documentation will assist you later if your final plan is questioned, or if unforeseeable issues arise during implementation. If you do not have union agreement on the plan you intend to implement, contact Employee & Labor Relations to discuss this process and receive guidance on how to proceed.
Contact the employee representative(s) and verbally advise them of what you can and cannot agree to. Prepare a written document outlining the final plan and advise the employee representative(s) of the final plan. You will also need to communicate this information to the affected employees.
[1] It is not necessary to Meet and Confer when one employee’s schedule is changed within the framework of an existing schedule change, but you must Meet and Confer when you want to change the whole schedule even if the change will only impact one employee.
ADDITIONAL ATTACHMENTS
A flow chart covering the above steps and a sample notification letter are attached.
[DATE]
[UNION PERSON]
[UNION NAME]
[ADDRESS]
Dear [UNION PERSON]
We have been experiencing problems with weekend registrations in our customer service center. We are required to provide registration coverage 24 hours per day and 7 days per week. Currently, staff are assigned weekends on a rotating basis (four weekends on and four weekends off). We also have extra help staff working every weekend. The problem we are encountering is with sick calls. Currently, when someone calls in sick, it is up to either the service center supervisor or the on-duty staff to call around and see if anyone is willing to come in and cover. We have experienced situations where no staff are available to cover which puts us in a situation of having staff work double shifts on weekends.
To remedy this situation, we are proposing that staff be placed on-call for weekends. The on-call staff would receive on-call compensation and would be paid overtime if called in as provided in the MOU. We would first ask for volunteers for on-call assignments and then, for weekends where there are not volunteers, we would assign staff to be on-call, on a rotating basis based on seniority. In this way, staff would know well in advance when their on-call weekend was to occur. We would also allow staff to “trade” assigned on-call weekends due to conflicts with other engagements or commitments. We would start by having one individual on-call each weekend on a trial basis. This would work as long as sick calls are kept to a minimum. If we continue to experience multiple sick calls on the same weekend, we would need to add a second individual to each weekend on-call assignment. We have not polled staff about this, but I believe that there will be staff who want to be assigned on-call in order to earn the extra money.
Attached is a sample on-call schedule showing how this would work. We plan to implement the on-call system beginning [DATE – MINIMUM OF 6 WEEKS BEFORE IMPLEMENTATION]. Please call me at [PHONENUMBER] if you have any questions or if you wish to meet regarding this matter. To facilitate timely implementation, I would request that, if you do wish to meet, that meeting be held no later than DATE – THREE WEEKS FROM DATE OF LETTER].
Sincerely,
[NAME]
[TITLE]
cc: Your Employee Relations Analyst