Our elected bargaining team reached a tentative agreement on a great new contract for OSLP workers, including:

• Additional Trainings: We won additional trainings on Nutrition, Supporting Healthy Choices and Agency Software (Therap).
• Labor Management Committee: We expanded our Labor Management Committee so we now have 4 bargaining unit representatives.
• Expanded Access to New Employees: We have struggled in the past to promptly meet new employees and tell them about our Union. We won improved language that gives us 30 minutes at OSLP’s New Employee Orientation. Management also agreed to provide Union “Welcome Packets” to new employees at the time of hire.
• Digital Access: We won new language requiring Management to provide digital access to the current Collective Bargaining Agreement and Employee Handbook at each home.
• Healthcare: Our health insurance premiums will stay the same – $0/$25 – until the economic reopener in Spring of 2020.
• Non-Discrimination and Harassment: We won expanded Non-Discrimination language, including making our contract inclusive of all genders. We also won privacy rights.
• Inclement Weather: We won a defined process to keep us and the people we support safe in the event of inclement weather.
• Holidays: Veterans’ Day is back in our contract. We also clarified the request procedure Vacations and Holidays off. We will discuss Earned Benefits further in the Spring 2020 reopener.
• Flex Time: We can now request to flex our schedule within the workweek as long as it does not impact supports or coverage. This means if a person we support has an appointment that goes beyond our normal work schedule, we can request to adjust our schedule in the same work week to account for that extra time. SLP staff will continue to flex their schedules as they currently are able.
• Grievance Procedure: We improved our grievance procedure language that reflects our current practices.
• Whistleblower Protections
• Improved Drug Testing Procedure
• Increased Number of Stewards
• In an effort to reduce turnover and get the On-Call Program fully staffed, the program will be restructured to include 6 full time positions and 4 part time positions.
• Both Full Time and Part Time On Call Staff will be guaranteed a minimum number of hours. For Part Time that minimum guarantee is 20 hours per week.
• All On Call staff will be able to select weekly days off at the beginning of each quarter. Full Time On Call staff will be able to pick 2 days off each week; Part Time On Call staff will be able to pick 3 days off each week.
• Part Time shifts will be at least 5 hours long.

Stay Tuned for Economic Bargaining in the Spring of 2020!