Upcoming Labor Relations Training and Upcoming Negotiations
Author: Human Resources
Date: 2/22/2021 8:03 AM
Upcoming Labor Relations Training for Supervisors and Upcoming Negotiations.
February 2021 Bargaining Update – Upcoming Labor Relations Training and Upcoming Negotiations
Upcoming Labor Relations Training for Supervisors
The County’s Labor Relations division is excited to announce that we have been working on a labor training for supervisory employees to provide some tools and resources to help supervise staff in a unionized environment. The training is primarily intended for supervisors and managers, but anyone who is interested in becoming a supervisor or manager is also encouraged to participate. The training will be done as three “micro learnings”, each five to ten minutes in length. The trainings will provide the legal landscape of labor relations, how the various laws that govern labor relations impact the County, how to apply the provisions of a memorandum of understanding (MOU), policy, or County Ordinance Code, and will provide practical application and resources.
Increased communication and training has been a key goal of the Labor Relations program over the past few years, and we are excited to be able to offer these new courses! These will be available in NeoGov within the next couple of weeks, and we will send out an announcement letting supervisors know when they can participate in the training. Please stay tuned for more information.
Upcoming Negotiations
Since the San Luis Obispo County Employees’ Association (SLOCEA) MOUs were ratified by the SLOCEA membership and approved by the County Board of Supervisors in January 2020, all represented employee associations have closed contracts (meaning that all MOUs are current and none of them are expired) and the Labor Relations division has not been engaged in contract negotiations since January 2020. This has allowed for some much-needed time to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic response and address other operational mandated labor relations work for the County and departments. Starting at the beginning of January 2021, the HR team is gearing up for negotiations again since the San Luis Obispo County Probation Peace Officers’ Association (SLOCPPOA), the San Luis Obispo Prosecutors’ Association (SLOPA), and the In-Home Support Services (IHSS) MOUs are all set to expire on June 30, 2021.
SLOCPPOA represents about 115 employees in the Probation Department in the classifications of Deputy Probation Officer I, II, and III, Supervising Deputy Probation Officer, and Juvenile Services Officer I, II, and III. The current SLOCPPOA MOU term is from July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2021, and according to the provisions of the MOU, negotiations are to begin by March 31, 2021.
SLOPA represents about thirty-two employees in the District Attorney’s Office in the classifications of Deputy District Attorney I, II, III, and IV. The current SLOPA MOU term is from July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2021, and according to the provisions of the MOU, negotiations are to begin by March 1, 2021.
IHSS is a State of California program that serves disabled individuals who would be at the risk of institutionalization in the absence of services. Although this is a State program, the County serves as the employer-of record for the caregivers and shares in the costing of this program with the State. The County also is responsible for any MOU negotiations. The current IHSS MOU term is from July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2021. According to the provisions of the IHSS MOU, negotiations are to begin by March 15, 2021.
The Labor Relations division has been busy preparing for these upcoming negotiations and is looking forward to working with these associations again. As the negotiations have not yet started, there is no information to be shared at this point, but we will provide whatever updates we are able to as negotiations progress. The graphic below shows the process that we go through during negotiations.
