Update! ER Site Visit/Meet and Confer

Attention ER Workers

Dear ER Social Worker:

During a recent site visit, ER workers clearly conveyed their concerns with the action by ER management to extend the hours when you are assigned a PM shift from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.  Your coworkers communicated multiple problems, of which the two most critical areas of concern were safety issues caused by staff being out until almost midnight and negative impacts to home/work balance.

OCEA staff and your colleagues Kenya Wernett, Christina Tompkins, Ruth McKnight, Wendy Bell-Togia and Jean Jones met with CSF managers and HR the next day to discuss the proposed schedule change. We also discussed the continuing caseload and workload issues that the agency continues to fail to address. Under direct questioning from your coworkers, it became apparent that the agency’s communication about the need for the changes had been insufficient.  The main problem, according to managers, was that the pool of volunteer workers to cover after-hours shifts is no longer sufficient. OCEA staff and your co-workers presented the following recommendations as possible remedies:

• Make a renewed call for On-Call shift volunteers and include incentives;
• Extend the PM shift only to a more reasonable 10 p.m.;
• Recruit specifically for a PM shift (formerly referred to as a swing shift).

This meeting underscored how important it is to have front line staff with sufficient subject matter expertise participate in workplace decisions.

Next Steps
The agency will consider our suggestions and we have tentatively agreed to a follow-up meeting during the first week of April.  In the event you have any questions and/or concerns, do not hesitate to contact OCEA.

Standing together, we have a much stronger voice.

In Solidarity,

Bridgette Harris
OCEA Operations Manager

Publication Date: March 12, 2020