Tentative Agreement Reached!

OCEA Court member,

As you know, yesterday OCEA and the Court brought in a mediator from the State Mediation and Conciliation Service in an attempt to help the parties reach an agreement on a new contract. The mediator provided a neutral assessment of each party’s positions and met with the parties both together and separately to try to bring us closer to an agreement.

After an all-day session that continued into the evening, we are excited to announce that we were able to reach a tentative agreement on a successor Memorandum of Understanding for the all three OCEA-represented bargaining units (the General Unit, Supervisory Unit and Court Clerk Unit). After months and months of negotiations and yesterday’s marathon mediation, your bargaining team believes the tentative agreement is the very best we could achieve and that we have left nothing on the table. YOUR OCEA COALITION BARGAINING TEAM THEREFORE UNANIMOUSLY RECOMMENDS THAT YOU VOTE YES TO RATIFY THE AGREEMENT.

Informational meetings will be held at OCEA and at outlying Justice Centers beginning next Wednesday to explain the contract terms and answer members’ questions. Specific dates, times and locations will be emailed to you shortly. In the meantime, here are some of the tentative agreement highlights:

• Two-year term from Oct. 27, 2017 through Oct. 24, 2019
• 3.2% general salary increase effective the first full pay period following ratification (except Court Reporters who shall receive an increase of 1.2%)
• Termination of the reverse pick-up side letter on the effective date of the general wage increase
• Three classification and compensation studies each year of agreement—first three studies to be Court Clerk series, Legal Processing Specialist series and Court Mediator series
• Increase in bereavement leave from 3 to 5 days, and inclusion of brother-in-law and sister-in-law in definition of “immediate family”
• Increase Pilot Sick Leave Incentive Program conversion from current 24 hours to 32 hours
• Effective Oct. 26, 2018, each employee will receive 24 hours of additional comp time
• Improvements to process to advance from Court Clerk II to Court Clerk III
• Increase in Court Reporter workweek to 37 ½ hours
• Mutual commitment to seek means to restore Court Reporter workweek to 40 hours with a date certain to return to table
• Effective Oct. 26, 2018, each 37 ½ hour Court Reporter employed on date of ratification to accrue an additional 16 hours of comp time annually until 40-hour workweek is restored
• Court Reporters to receive overtime pay for all hours worked over 37 ½ in a workweek until 40-hour workweek is restored
• Deletion of separate salary advancement MOU provision for Court Reporters
• Steward release time for monthly steward meetings
• Modification of rest period provisions for TPS and PCS classifications
• Continuation of side letters for CJC parking, furloughs, educational reimbursement, Court Reporter health premium subsidy, and voluntary furlough program
• Non-economic improvements to contract language

Check your email often for meeting information and voting instructions.

In Solidarity,

Your Court Coalition Bargaining Team

Publication Date: December 1, 2017