Seniority From Article 6 of the Labor Agreement

Section 1: Seniority is an employee's length of service for the EMPLOYER from the most recent date of employment, re-employment, or reinstatement in the Department of Community Corrections or any of its predecessor departments, or any departments of the EMPLOYER where the employee has been employed in a permanent position as a Probation/Parole Officer.

A. Seniority is not interrupted during a period an employee is on approved leave, including leave for Union business or layoff, if the employee returns to active work status having complied with all of the terms and conditions of this AGREEMENT and the conditions the EMPLOYER established in approving the leave.

B. Seniority in work classes covered by this AGREEMENT shall be retained and continue to accrue during the probationary period if an employee leaves the unit covered by this AGREEMENT for another position with the EMPLOYER because of promotion, demotion, or transfer.

There have been many questions raised about when seniority starts, terminates or is preserved. The language above from our contract should help clarify what seniority is and how it can be challenged.

Time as a permanent employee of the Department of Community Corrections. This would include time in Adult Field Services, Juvenile Field Services, Family Court Services, Adult Corrections Facility, County Home School and Juvenile Detention Center. If you have been employed continuously in any of these areas as a permanent employee, meaning full time, part time benefited earning or part time. Intermittent, trainee, grant or temporary, are not considered permanent. Therefore time in positions under those statuses do not count for seniority.

Note that section A allows employees to be on an approved leave and continue to accrue seniority.

Note that section B allows employees to continue to have and accrue seniority during a probationary period for promotion, transfer or demotion. One should note that an employee who completes probation after transfer to another department, then returns to this bargaining unit, does not get to keep seniority he/she had prior to leaving DOCC.

For both the union and the employer to change seniority via a challenge, evidence must be presented that would explain why the date in the current list is incorrect based on the above contract language.

For example:

The seniority was interrupted by a period of severance by the employee, the employee was then reinstated at a later date. The date on the list should be the most recent date of reinstatement.

The employee transferred to another department and passed probation, then returned to DOCC. The date on the list should be the date the employee returned to DOCC.

An employee's seniority date is not the date he/she was hired as a permanent employee in the DOCC. It is possible that the date reflects an intermittent, trainee, temporary, or grant date which would be incorrect.

The date on this list is in error. Possibly typed incorrectly or a similar reason. The employees personal file will have to be checked to verify the correct date.

There are employees on the list with no seniority date. This would mean that the employee was hired as a grant employee. By the county's definition they have no seniority right. The union has attempted to negotiate seniority right for these employees at the last two contract negotiations. However, the employer has been unwilling to allow this. By definition under the Public Employee Labor Relations Act, they are members of the bargaining unit and thus are members of the union.