2023 Reminders

• Special Day Leave (sometimes called Governors Day) is 8 hours of leave that can be used in a single block any day during the calendar year.  Old language a couple contracts ago this was only allowed to be used Thanksgiving through New Years.
• Reminder that the day after Thanksgiving is also a holiday.  You receive 8 hours for Thanksgiving and 8 hours the day after.  Thank you, members who produced this idea and negotiated several contracts ago!
• December 1, 6.5% COLA.  You will see this raise on your January 1 paycheck.
• Uniform Allowance- Must be spent per fiscal year (July 1-June 30). New language allows reimbursement of $325 or $150 (depending on position) employed 9 months or more, $125 employed less than 9 months, and increase to 3 shirts for new employees.
• Inclement/Hazardous Conditions Leave-Paid leave for the full day when office is closed.  Old language only allowed paid leave half day of closure, then employee had to come up with another half.  This leave can also be used when worksite is not accessible (example: ODOT highway closure).
• New vacation contract language for new employees- Vacation leave is accessible immediately to employees, but still can’t be cashed out until after 6 months. Before this contract you had to wait 6 months to use vacation leave.

Labor Management Committee- The Labor Management Committee is our place to identify issues and voice concerns, including those not specifically related articles within our contract. The goal of the committee is to work directly with management in a collaborative framework to provide recommendations to improve our work conditions. Our next meeting is Wednesday, December 6, 2023, we will be welcoming our newest member on the labor side, Kelly Lawerence. Congratulations in your new role Kelly!  The two main topic we will focus on are:

• Workday - we will be identifying some of the ongoing payroll issues, how to streamline communications so that staff approach the appropriate people to address their concern, and some of the limitations and barriers of the software itself.
• Computer accessibility - we will be presenting the results of our survey in which we asked for your feedback on computer access, including the number of people and computers in your program, and whether the computing speeds and internet was sufficient. As part of this discussion, we will also voice some concerns we received from people on the OSU network who do not have adequate access to the ODFW network, which has become a burden with required Workday tasks.

If you have any feedback to these or other topics, please let us know by replying to this email or sending one to odfwunionsteward@gmail.com. In addition to areas of improvement, we are also always happy to forward positive feedback to recognize situations that had a positive outcome!

Local 109 Elections

• We are in the beginning stage of Sub-Local 109 elections.  Your current leadership will end their term Spring 2024.  Nomination forms for the positions will be coming in January.  Anyone that is interested in a position can view descriptions here.

Worksite Meetings

• We have scheduled a conference call Thursday, December 7 noon-1pm. Be on the lookout for an email with agenda and details to join as a workgroup or single.
• Would you like to have a worksite meeting at your office?  Contact us so we can set up something that works for your office.

Workday Pay Issues

• Please contact a Steward or SEIU 503 if you are having issues with pay due to Workday.  You can find more details about the grievances that were filed and latest updates on SEIU503 website. As of November 3, there’s been some agreement made between the union and management, but no settlement to any of the grievances filed.

The 2023-2025 Contract is being reviewed.  We will let you know when final copies are available.  Until then you can use the new language summary and 2021-23 contract. Contact a Steward if you have questions about contract language.

Congrats for making it to the bottom of this blog. Now pass the information you read to others that might ignore it.

ODFW Sub-Local 109 is 48% membership (Sept 2023).  When ODFW joined SEIU 503 twenty years ago we were at 62%.  Talk to your coworkers about becoming members.  Let’s get that membership number increased.

Happy Thanksgiving!