Deputies Union Seeks Seniority Scheduling (073106 Daily Bulletin)

There is not that much any more that the Sheriff Employee gets for direct Benefits, the Seniority benefit for Scheduling is a very small benefit that really goes a long way. The Problem is just what the President is quoted as saying in the Peace, and that is the Ism's have it. In the smaller station the Capt. gets angry at you so he gives you the worse Schedule possible, yet you are the senior guy, how is that fair, the guy that has been there has earned the time go choose when he is going to work and when he/she is going to have days off, pertaining to their seniority. So they picked their schedule they can choose the days off and weeks worked etc etc, only if the person before them didn't pick that schedule, they pick it and the person can then pick behind. The Lt's and brass get upset and don't want to give up their picking the schedule for the people because then they don't have any responsibility, or their responsibility changes to having to hunt down the next person to pick their schedule choice.

It works great and why the Sheriff Department is not doing it by now is beyond me frankly they should be picking by seniority a long time before the Rialto Police Department was ever picking by Seniority, because the Sheriff Department is usually more fair to their employees then Rialto is to theirs.

I Hope that the Sheriff Deputies get the choice, because they deserve it!!

BSRanch...

Deputies union seeks seniority scheduling
By Jeff Horwitz, Staff Writer

In an end run around mediations with Sheriff's Department brass, the deputies union is asking the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors to impose a seniority scheduling system on management.

The move would alter the legally binding memorandum of understanding the union inked with the board in December, which was supposed to last for three years. The Sheriff's Department has urged supervisors not to impose the union's request, which the union acknowledged could set a precedent for revisiting contracts.

"If seven months ago we all sat down in a room and discussed an issue, why there's a need to discuss that issue in the midterm of a three-year contract makes no sense to me,'' said Undersheriff Richard Beemer.

Bill Abernathie, president of the politically potent 3,100-member San Bernardino County Safety Employees Benefit Association, saw the matter differently. The union's memorandum was left deliberately vague on the point of 50-50 seniority scheduling, he said, to allow further negotiations without holding up the contract.

The scheduling change would cost nothing, he said, and it would allow deputies more freedom to choose when they worked.

But in recent months, he said, it became apparent the department wasn't committed to addressing the issue. A department survey was supposed to give his members a voice on the matter, Abernathie said, but the results, in some cases, were in the department's favor by dubiously lopsided margins. In one instance, Abernathie said, the department said its Colorado River Station had voted 40-1 against seniority scheduling.

While Abernathie did not accuse the department of cooking the numbers, "the information I'm receiving is not matching the surveys,'' he said.

"This creates a uniform scheduling practice that takes out favoritism, nepotism, any of those other -isms,'' Abernathie said. "It makes it totally fair across the board.'' Abernathie said that on a hunch, the union did its own survey and found that most stations favored the change.

Beemer, a four-time past president of SEBA himself, disagreed. Management had been working with the union to determine where seniority scheduling was appropriate, he said. Particularly in small stations, Beemer said, commanders needed more scheduling leeway. "Not every schedule fits every need,'' he said.

But the union was unwilling to accept anything but a complete victory, Beemer said, and filed a grievance which was to be mediated Tuesday. At that meeting, both Beemer and Abernathie agree, the union informed management that it had taken the issue to the board over the department's head.

"It was a fight in the midst of us trying to work it out,'' Beemer said.

The supervisors' involvement isn't new, Abernathie said. During the spring budgeting process, he said, supervisors had called Sheriff Gary Penrod to tell him that his budget would be getting held up if he didn't work with the union on senior scheduling.

That discussion had been been conducted without the knowledge of the full board, said 3rd District Supervisor Dennis Hansberger. "A member of the board might have done that,'' he said. "It sounds like a more private discussion than I've been included in.''

Hansberger said he was skeptical of reopening the memorandum. But even on the Friday before the board's next meeting, he said, neither the union nor other supervisors had explained their rationale to him.

"If there's any discussion of opening up (the memorandum), which we literally never do, it needs to be put in writing and be specific,'' he said.

Hansberger said he wasn't sure if it was even possible to make such minor tweaks without embarking on larger renegotiations. "I'm told that once you open (the memorandum), you open it, he said.

None of the supervisors has announced support of the union's request. On Thursday, Postmus' chief of staff, Brad Mitzelfelt, acknowledged that his boss had an interest in the deputies' seniority scheduling. But neither Mitzelfelt nor his boss were prepared to discuss the matter, he said. Closed session discussions are generally confidential.

Any change would have to be brought before the full board during the public portion of the meeting, Abernathie said.

The union president made no public predictions on whether his union would have enough votes to get its way. The board would likely have three options: rejecting the union's request, determining a process for management to negotiate with the rank and file, or simply order the change.

"The precedent would be if the county imposed this,'' Abernathie said. But he added that his union did not expect going to the board to become a staple tactic.

"I think the sheriff should have some control, and be able to negotiate things,'' Abernathie said. "But there may be times when the Board of Supervisors steps in and does what I think is correct.''