Labor Relations: The Meet and Confer Process

Rest and Meal Periods

 Provisions should address length of rest and meal period, the time of day that rest and meal periods are to be taken, and mealtime compensation, if applicable.

Vacation

Personal leave is a mandatory subject of bargaining. 220

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 Personal leave is not a vested right; leave can be altered through collective bargaining. 221

 Issues to negotiate may include amount of accrual and maximum accrual and procedures for accrual, preference, approval, employer cancellation, and pay-out upon separation.  An employer should clarify that no vacation may be taken without a supervisor’s approval and reasonable notice, and employers should retain the right to cancel scheduled vacations for operational purposes.  Entitlement to accumulated unused sick leave on retirement is a proper subject for bargaining. 222  An employer should consider negotiating incentives for non-use, such as retirement service credit. However, employers should also negotiate to limit maximum accrual, and refrain from agreeing to pay-out sick leave upon separation or from permitting donation of sick leave to a catastrophic leave program. Sick leave should be regarded as a resource to use on an as-needed basis, rather than a vested benefit.  Agencies should retain the ability to require verification of illness, and to discipline for abuse or excessive use of sick leave. However, the Healthy Families Healthy Workplaces Paid Sick Leave law requires employers to provide an employee with paid sick days upon oral or written request and allows an employee to determine how much paid sick leave he or she needs to use. 223 The law also points out that employers cannot deny an employee the right to use covered paid sick leave or retaliate against an employee for using such covered paid sick leave. 224 Therefore, an employer's insistence on verification of protected sick leave (the first 24 hours or 3 days of paid sick leave used in a 12-month period) does not come without risk of an employee claiming he or she was denied coverage of paid sick leave under the law.  An employer should specify how employees who must work on holidays will be compensated (i.e., additional time off).  An employer should negotiate a provision requiring that employees must be in paid status on the day before or after that holiday in order to receive “holiday” pay. However, if this exists as a practice or policy, employers should refrain from raising this issue at the bargaining table. Sick Leave Holidays

Labor Relations: The Meet and Confer Process ©2019 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 40