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"Time Lines"
Many
times when employees have issues or concerns that
may be grievances, they forget one very important
aspect of the grievance process, "Time
Lines." If an employee wants to file a
grievance, they have only 30 days from the date of
offense in which to file it. This is part of
the grievance procedure under our current state
contract. Failure to submit a grievance in a
timely manner will cause the grievance to be
considered untimely, and therefore not responded to.
Also
there are time lines which must be adhered to for an
employee to appeal an unsatisfactory 1st step
decision. An employee has only 10 working days
from receipt of the 1st step decision in which to
appeal to the 2nd step. There is also a time
line to appeal an unsatisfactory 2nd step
decision. That time frame is 15 working days.
Time
lines also apply to appeal an annual rating.
An employee has only 15 days from date of receipt on
an unsatisfactory rating.
Time
lines are also important when a person files an out
of title grievance. Under our current contract
if an out of title grievance is sustained the
grievant receives payment for only 15 days prior to
the filing of the grievance. In the past, many
employees have lost months of back pay because they
waited to file an out of title grievance.
Please
remember, if you have any doubts or questions about
time lines, call the local union office at
1-800-984-2732 or 585-461-8920
Sean Ledwith
Local 436
Stewards and
Workplace Violence
One of the steward's many roles is to look out for
the health and safety of co-workers, and the threats
don't always come from dangerous equipment, toxic
chemicals, foul air or the like. In the United
States, according to government statistics, there
are an estimated 1.7 million workplace assaults
annually - and 600 workplace homicides.
It's a dangerous world out there,
but stewards can make it safer by staying alert and
using the power of the union to educate bosses,
members, criminal justice authorities, and the
public.
Understand the Distinctions
First, look at the kinds of violence that occur in
your work setting. There are four types:
- Criminal
Intent: The violent person is a stranger who has
no legitimate relationship to the worksite and
is engaged in criminal activity, such as a
robbery.
- Customer/client/patient:
This is the predominant type of violence in
healthcare, social services, and the public
sector, and involves patients, inmates, and
clients who assault staff.
- Co-worker:
It is a myth that this is the predominant form
of workplace violence. It comprises a small
percentage of workplace homicides and assaults,
but it gets the most attention from employers:
they can blame workers rather than examining
their own procedures. Where this blame game is
occurring it should not be ignored by stewards
and unions.
- Personal.
This refers to domestic violence, perpetrated by
an acquaintance or family member, that spills
into the workplace.
Each type of violence calls for a
different response from stewards. One of the first
steps is to become familiar with the frequency and
extent of violence in your specific setting. Examine
injury and illness records: they can provide helpful
information on the extent of reported assaults,
including what department they are occurring in and
the amount of lost time - if any - they are causing.
This information can be used to get management to
take the problem seriously. But be careful: under
reporting is common in many worksites with frequent
assaults, and other methods may be useful, such as
worker surveys, inspections, or interviews of
injured members.
What
Next?
Once you've established there's a
problem, what kind of measures can you look to
institute to make your workplace safer?
- Develop
access control systems in buildings frequented
by customers, clients, and patients.
- Where
money is an attraction, as in convenience
stores, look at drop safes, increased lighting,
and security cameras. Have at least two staffers
on duty late at night.
- Get
training on recognizing and intervening with
potentially violent customers, clients, and
patients.
- Implement
effective emergency response systems and pro-
grams to bar unruly customers and clients from
the worksite.
- Develop
conflict resolution programs and threat
assessment procedures for dealing with disputes
within the workforce.
- Get
training in the recognition of domestic violence
in the workplace, and systems to assist affected
workers by developing specific safety plans and
other supports.
The U.S. Occupational Safety &
Health Administration does not have a standard on
workplace violence prevention, but it does offer
guidelines and other resources at this website: http://www.osha-slc.gov/SLTC/workplaceviolence/index.html.
The OSHA guidelines call for
management commitment and worker involvement; a
comprehensive risk assessment; implementation of
prevention measures; training, and periodic
evaluation of the program.
Check with your union leadership
to determine if your employer has a written,
comprehensive violence prevention program. Beware:
often, implementation of such programs lacks union
and worker involvement and many of the important
steps in the policy are never carried out. Stewards
can help address this by providing feedback to the
leadership.
If there is no program to address
workplace violence, consider making a presentation
to your executive board or health and safety
committee, proposing that the union raise the issue
with management. And you can propose that contract
language be negotiated requiring workplace violence
prevention programs.
Investigate incidents in which a
member is subjected to violence and consult with the
union leadership on how to pursue your findings.
Possible union follow-ups include filing a
grievance, raising the issue at the health and
safety or labor/management meeting, creation of a
workplace violence task force, or approaching
management to implement preventive measures
discovered in the investigation.
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