Court executives arrogance continues

Court executives continue to show by their actions that they have little respect for Court workers. The latest insult occurred last Friday in the offices of the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).

As background, you may recall that one day last August sixteen of your Court coworkers called in sick, as is their right under provisions of their MOU. Court management responded and without any investigation ignored the contract terms, accused the workers of taking part in a concerted activity, and punished fourteen of them by unfairly docking their pay. OCEA subsequently filed an Unfair Practice Charge with PERB on behalf of the workers based on the Court’s improper conduct.

On February 17 of this year PERB issued a complaint against the Court and a settlement conference was held at PERB on April 14, 2017. OCEA was represented by Senior Labor Relations Representatives Bridgette Washington and Denise Velasco, and Court employees Cinnamon Walters and Alicia DuBois.

We proposed to the Court a simple and reasonable settlement: pay the wrongfully withheld wages and post notices of the wrongful conduct on OCEA bulletin boards at each Courthouse. The Court not only rejected that proposal, it demanded a letter of apology from each of the workers! Instead of defusing the situation, Court executives and their attorneys elected to escalate the level of disrespect they have for those who do the real work of the Court.

As a result of the Court’s intransigence, the case will proceed to a hearing before a PERB Administrative Law Judge. We will keep you updated as developments warrant.

We want to thank Court workers for standing together to ensure their rights are protected and that MOU provisions regarding sick leave are upheld and enforced.

When working people stand shoulder-to-shoulder, we win.

In solidarity,

Bridgette Washington
Denise Velasco
Sr. Labor Relations Representatives

Publication Date: April 20, 2017