AGENDA #8a
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Response to Transportation Department Employees’ Presentation to Council
DATE: June 15, 2005
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this report is:
BACKGROUND
On May 18, 2005, the Council received a petition from Transportation Department employees who are members of UE Local 150 regarding proposals for improving working conditions. The petitioners presented an issues list including: concerns about pay, work hours, attendance and split shift policies. The petitioners requested the establishment of a “meet and confer” process to discuss and resolve issues.
The Council referred the petition to the Town Manager and Town Attorney for evaluation and response. Please see Attachments 1 and 2.
DISCUSSION
Response to List of Issues Presented by Transportation Department Employees
We have reviewed the list of issues presented by the petitioners and provide information for review and consideration by the Council. We also have attempted to address statements made by employees of the Transportation Department during the hearing. Because of the amount of detail required for responses, we have included the responses to the issues in Attachment 3, Human Resources Staff Report. We recognize that addressing all of the issues raised will require discussion with employees and we consider the staff report to be preliminary only.
North Carolina Law Related to Negotiations with Labor Unions
North Carolina law prohibits the Town from collective bargaining. However, the law recognizes that employees have a constitutional right to become members of labor unions if they desire to do so. The Town Attorney has prepared a separate memorandum, Agenda #8b- N.C. Law Related to Negotiations Between Elected Officials and Labor Unions.
Transportation Employees’ Request
Transportation employees presented the following requests:
o Establish a series of periodic meetings between (Town) workers elected by their peers who are members of UE Local 150, their chosen representatives and town management in and outside of departments to identify, discuss, and resolve problems and issues that impact (Town) employees.
o The series of periodic meetings will start immediately in May 2005 with a goal to resolving key issues as mentioned above by July 1, 2005 (or no later than September 1, 2005). These series of periodic meeting will thereafter be opened each January to be completed no later than July 1 of each year. Next meeting schedule will begin January of 2006.
o Each series of meetings will end with a written summary of understanding that both (Town) workers and the Town of Chapel Hill will honor until the next series of period meetings begin and end the following year.
o The Town Council is to enact this process, calling for it to commence annually as stated above. Monthly or periodic reports back to the Town Council would be required from all those involved in the process.
Past Practice of Meeting and Conferring with Employees
We believe that the Town has a demonstrated record of being willing to meet and confer with employees to discuss topics of interest to employees as well as issues and concerns. The following employee groups have met at times on a regular basis to discuss various topics:
Proposal for Discussions
We will be pleased to meet and confer with Transportation employees just as we have met and conferred with other employee groups in the past. The management team would be led by the Deputy Town Manager along with the Human Resources Director, Town Attorney, Transportation Director and others as needed.
Issues reviewed and discussed by and with Transportation employees would also be presented to and discussed with the Transportation Department Employee Forum for consideration and comment.
Products of discussions would be used to address issues and solve problems. Minutes would be prepared for all meetings and distributed to all employees. Reports would be made to the Council as progress is made on addressing issues to the same extent we would provide information about meetings with other employee groups.
Guidelines for Discussions
We propose an initial schedule that would have meetings about every other week for about two hours until issues are understood. The number of employees participating in the meetings would reasonably be limited to about five or six. Meetings would be held during the day and employees involved would be on paid time during the discussions.
The management team will present and review issues with the Transportation Department Employee Forum for consideration and comment. Issues also would be discussed with the Town-Wide Employee Forum as appropriate.
In accordance with N.C. law we would not enter into a contract or similar agreement. We have followed and would continue to follow this process with other employee groups in the future.
Schedule
We propose that the meetings start in July and continue as necessary. We would aim to complete discussions by November so that items requiring budget action would be considered by the Manager and Department Director as the budget is prepared. Future discussions could take place in the future as desired.
CONCLUSION
We believe that the meet and confer process between these employees and Town management will be a useful means of identifying and solving problems as it has been for other groups of employees. We will do our best to insure that the interests of the Town and all employees are fairly considered in the process.
ATTACHMENTS