Victory for Union Members: Arbitration Win on Overtime Meal Allowance Group Grievance
Significant Settlement Secured for Affected Employees
We are excited to announce a long overdue win for workers in the County. Our Union filed the initial grievance when the County unilaterally decided to stop paying our members the meal allowance pursuant to our contract language during the pandemic and through 2024. Despite several attempts to settle the case since negotiations, including our attempt to settle in 2023 and 2024 through a Mediation Project, the County rejected our proposal and was adamant that their interpretation of the language was correct.
Background on the Issue:
Beginning in March 2020, the County issued a shelter-in-place order due to the Covid-19 pandemic, transitioning the workforce to full-time telework. The majority of Social Workers and Eligibility Workers, Supervisors, Analysts, and Clerical in the Social Services Agency began teleworking, often working overtime while teleworking to support our community during this unprecedented pandemic. Employees who worked contiguous overtime noticed that they didn’t receive their contractual rights to their meal allowance. This continued to happen at various programs or departments in SSA, thus violating our union contract. County Labor Relations doubled down on the violation, by providing SSA management directives to “not pay overtime meal for employees who are teleworking and working overtime hours.” Labor Relations contended that the purpose of meal reimbursements was to provide nourishment if not readily available, and that if employees worked from home, meals would be readily accessible.
We were confident that county management and Labor Relations were outright wrong. Our Meal Allowance is not a reimbursement of expenses but an acknowledgment of continuous work.
During contract negotiations in 2023, the County tried to force changes to our language, and we successfully fought back this change, which resulted in the County dropping their takeaway proposal and we preserved our language. The County stated that they would address this through the arbitration process, in which they stated they would prevail.
Union members didn’t give up, leading us to take our case to Arbitration:
Paired with union actions, and in partnership with our union counsel and Contract Enforcement Department (CED), we tirelessly went through detailed reports and worked with members to identify who was impacted, and how many hours/days workers were not paid. Our members did not give up and we proceeded to prepare for arbitration in the fall of 2024. We were able to show in arbitration that the County violated Section 8.4(b) of our contract when they refused to pay the meal reimbursement to employees who teleworked overtime contiguous to their shift for at least two hours.
When We Fight, We Win:
On December 17, 2024, the Arbitrator ruled in favor of our Union! The County is required to compensate retroactively all eligible impacted workers for missed meal allowances with interest. This is estimated to be over half a million dollars for our SEIU 521 workers!! Additionally, the County is ordered to comply moving forward, by ensuring that all eligible teleworking employees receive the meal allowance per Section 8.4(b) of the contract.
What’s Next:
- Tracking of Timecards (data): it will take some time for our Contract Enforcement Department and Stewards to sift through data between 2020 and 2023 to identify who is owed and how much. The County is working on getting us data from 2024-onward.
- Timeline for payout: Our Union is meeting with the County this week to establish a timeline for when the County will start paying out the reimbursement.
- SEIU 521 Town Hall Meetings: SEIU 521 will be hosting a series of town hall meetings to review the arbitration decision and answer questions. Stay tuned for another email update with dates of these town hall meetings.
The backpay period will be from 2020 through and including the first pay period of 2025. From the second pay period of 2025 and onward, the meal allowance will be paid in the usual manner. Please contact your supervisor if you have questions about how to submit for future meal allowances.
In the meantime, impacted workers should do the following:
- Submit accurate timesheets when Teleworking
- Collect any documentation showing you worked contiguous overtime, while teleworking from April 2020 until present. This will help ensure that workers are paid correctly.
- Make sure you are accurately submitting time sheets when you’re teleworking and using appropriate telework code. If you haven’t accurately submitted timesheets, there will likely be an opportunity for you to submit a statement form
*Impacted workers: All County workers who worked contiguous overtime, while teleworking, from April 2020 until present and not paid the meal penalty.
This is a testament of our strength as union members and our solidarity. If you are not a member, join thousands of your co-workers to continue to uphold our contract and Union values for all. Sign up today!
For questions, complete this form https://forms.gle/tf3GhmPKrZApyKjS8