Court negotiations reach impasse

Dear Court member, 

As many of you know, OCEA workplace leaders Kim Kaldenbach, Rick Burns, Shanon Sipilovic, Robert Hendricks, and Maria Ruiz, along with OCEA staff, have been meeting with Court management regarding the budget challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Court management has concluded the Court faces a $3.5 million short fall for FY 20-21. Along with the budget impacts to the Court, COVID-19 has severely disrupted workers lives, including the challenge of arranging childcare and coping with unpredictable and often inconvenient school schedules. In this unprecedented public health crisis, public servants across California and the nation, including you, have risen to the moment.

Our meetings began on Aug. 13th when the Court triggered the Mandatory Furlough Side Letter. OCEA opposed mandatory furloughs but the Court unilaterally imposed them pursuant to the side letter. As a result, we commenced “impact bargaining” following the Court's action.

The Court proposed all Court employees take 64 hours, or one day per month for the rest of the fiscal year, of mandatory furlough time. Your negotiating team presented an alternative approach to address the Court's fiscal shortfall but at the same time provide the flexibility you and your family need. The team argued for the following:

• Permit a worker to take a same day ad-hoc furlough and convert sick time hours to unpaid furlough, which would have allowed workers to take leave when they need it and accelerated the Court’s cost savings.
• Workers who don’t need leave (or who cannot afford to take more than the minimum number of furlough hours), would provide the Court with stable operational resources.
• The goal is to help the Court close the funding gap while monitoring the COVID-19 infection rate, school re-openings, and prepare for the holiday season.
• If target cost savings resulted, the program would be suspended allowing workers to return to full-time work and full-time pay.

Unfortunately, our meetings resulted in an impasse this past Friday when the Court refused to agree to our more worker-friendly furlough process.

Next steps
OCEA has requested this matter advance to mediation, which is now scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. With the assistance of the State Mediation and Conciliation Service, we hope the Court will see furloughs as more than just a cost-savings measure, and understand that this is an opportunity to provide much needed relief for Court workers who have stepped up and have been spread thin during these trying times. We will communicate any new developments as soon as they occur.

Please talk to your Steward or OCEA staff if you have any questions. Standing together has never been more important than right now.

In Solidarity,

Charles Barfield
OCEA General Manager

Publication Date: September 22, 2020