EDD Steward team wins big for returning Employment Program Representatives

Article Published June 24, 2022

stepped up to accept a Limited Term (LT) Employment Program Manager (EPM) 1 position to help lead teams of front-line employees. As the limited terms began to end, many of these hard-working, stand-up leaders discovered that starting the first day back as an EPR, they were being thrown to the wolves.   

Many job assignments were not being distributed equitably. They were expected to jump right back in without any adjustment period, re-training, or coaching on the ever-changing requirements of the EPRs within the Unemployment Insurance Program Division.

To add insult to injury, they were also informed they would not be allowed to take their vacations as previously approved and would have to be placed on the wait list for possible approval of time off for vacations.  

In preparation for the end of the Limited Term employment, the Steward team had discussions with EDD Executive Management and Office Senior Management teams on how these employees would be transitioned back to their former positions and were assured a transitional period would be provided. Noting that the spirit of the understanding had not been meet – the Team reached out to the Deputy Director Grecia Staton for a workable resolution for all employees.

Within 48 hours, notice was sent to all levels of Unemployment Insurance Management with the following directives:

  • EPRs will be afforded one week transition/adjustment time. Those that have already transitioned back to their EPR roles from their EPM I LT role, will be provided a week of transition/adjustment this following week. 
     
  • Vacation approvals that were granted during their EPM I LT role will be honored.
     
  • Due to the inability of these employees to bid during the EPR vacation bidding timeframes, these EPRs will be provided the opportunity to request time off separately and apart from vacation slot availability on this years’ current vacation calendar. Due to business need, if a vacation request is made for the two-week holiday time frame from December 27, 2022 through January 6, 2023, only one of the two weeks will be granted. The collectively-bargained vacation leave request process will resume upon the release of the 2023 bidding calendar.
     
  • EPR’s will return to the skill-based EPR role they previously held. Therefore, if an EPR was assigned to claim filing prior to their appointment to an EPM I LT, they will return to the same claim filing role. This will be consistently applied to roles the EPRs held in the determination, appeal, adjustment, and overpayment workloads.

Congratulations to our EDD Team Stewards for the important win.