From Missouri
Question: The fire department where I am employed works 24 hours on and 48 off. Our pay cycle is a 28-day cycle. The City is threatening to require us to take vacation time off during our “long” cycle so that they won’t have to pay as much FLSA overtime. Can they do this??
Answer: In the absence of collective bargaining or any local law governing the use of vacation time, the answer is likely to be that the City’s approach is legal. The FLSA does not regulate vacation time, and allows an employer to treat paid time off from work as excluded from “hours worked” under the FLSA.
From Michigan
Question: I was injured at work (car crash). I am now on permanent light duty. I currently have ongoing doctor appointments with the City’s doctor. Most are therapy-related. Are my appointments considered hours worked for which I have to be compensated? (They have attempted to change all of my appointments to after I get off work.) If I can attend these appointments during the day, does my employer have to let me go during work hours or can they make me go after work?
Answer: Under the FLSA, time spent in a doctor’s treatments would not usually be considered hours worked. It’s possible, however, that your collective bargaining agreement may treat the issue differently.
From Minnesota
Question: I am a police officer in Minnesota. Our police department has approximately 100 sworn officers. We have a procedure that I have found most disturbing and I feel is wrong. Recently, I received a driving complaint from a citizen stating that while I was at the intersection, she felt I was too close to her bumper; we were not in motion. She called our I.A. Division and they took the complaint. Even though it is unfounded and I don’t remember the incident, I was told that this is going in my personnel file, indefinitely. Our department has a practice of keeping all complaints against us on file in the computer, even if they are unsubstantiated. I see this as a problem in that if someone wants to make the officer’s life hell, he could just have his friends call in driving complaints all the time. Tell me this is wrong, Please!!
Answer: It’s rare to find a law enforcement agency with the policies you describe. Most agencies take the position that long-term retention of internal affairs dispositions fundamentally accomplish only one thing -- they increase the agency’s exposure to civil liability in the event the agency is sued under a “pattern and practice” theory. However, given that the policy exists, the only way for employees to protest the policy would either be through educating the policy makers, or through putting the issue on the table through the collective bargaining process.
From Michigan
Question: We had an internal investigation on a dispatcher who happens to live in the city we work in. Someone had made a complaint about his trees. He got irate as a citizen with the subject from City Hall (this had nothing to do with working at the Police Department). In the end, the Police Department found him in violation of eight things in our general orders. The Union filed a grievance and we went to the third step, where the City knocked down six violations, leaving the dispatcher with two violations. However, it was agreed upon in writing that after six months the letter of reprimand would be taken out of the dispatcher’s file. The City is refusing to remove the letter and we have it in writing that they had initially agreed to it. What recourse do we have?
Answer: From your question, the dispatcher is covered by the terms of a collective bargaining agreement and is represented by a labor organization. It sounds like the employer and the labor organization reached an agreement resolving a grievance, with one of the terms of the agreement being that the employer would remove a letter of reprimand within six months. In general, agreements resolving grievances are binding and are enforceable. In some states, the enforcement mechanism would be through the filing of a new grievance seeking to enforce the settlement; in other states, the enforcement mechanism would be the filing of an unfair labor practice complaint alleging either a failure to bargain in good faith or a failure to abide by the terms of a written agreement. You should check with a Michigan attorney to determine which route Michigan takes.
To submit questions on public safety labor and employment issues, visit our web site at www.LRIS.com. Please be aware that the answers given here are for information purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice.