Unit 1: Professional Administrative, Financial and Staff services

DGS-OSP Meet and Confer

On Tuesday, February 14, 2023, SEIU Local 1000 met with the California Department of General Services (DGS) to discuss the reissue and/or update of employee policy documents without proper notice to the Union.

Background:

Bargaining Unit (BU) 14 leadership was alerted by membership that the Office of State Printing (DGS/OSP) had initiated the process of updating and/or reissuing employee policies and requiring that employees provide signature acknowledgement of receipt.

On Thursday, January 18, 2023, our SEIU Local 1000 member team and staff met with leadership from the Department of Real Estate’s (DRE) legal division to discuss the new remediation process that legal support staff began working on in late November. We became aware of this new process because some of our represented employees contacted our URC to get additional information about the process, and we verified that we never received a notice from the Department on this issue at which point we reached out to the Department.

Our Union team met with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) again on Thursday, October 20, 2022, regarding their planned implementation of a new electronic timekeeping system. This meeting was held in response to a cease and desist that our Union had filed against the Department in late September due to a lack of proper notice to our Union about the system.

On Thursday, August 25, 2022, our Union met with The Franchise Tax Board (FTB) to meet and confer on FTB’s notice of the updated Telework Policy, the most recent update to the Return to Office Plan and update to the COVID Prevention Policy. This meeting is one of many meet and confers we’ve had starting in 2021 - particularly on the Return to Office Plan and Telework.

On June 1, 2022, our Union team met with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) again to continue our conversations about the required separation of duties for Driver Safety Hearing Officers related to a recent court order. This was our third meeting on this topic. The information that we received from the Department in this meeting was largely the same as we had learned in our prior meetings.

opportunity to learn more about the Departments’ expectations of employees in terms of establishing their home work space and have a conversation regarding the Department’s requirement that employees who use sick or vacation leave on an office assigned day must alter their telework schedule and later “make up” the office workday.

On Friday, April 15, 2022, our Union met with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) regarding the new Telework policy. CDPH stated they support telework department-wide and see telework as a retention and morale booster for CDPH. We had a productive meeting where we learned CDPH is working to address properly resourcing teleworking equipment and functions to ensure the best teleworking environment.

We learned the following: 

The SEIU Local 1000 Team met with the Employment Development Department (EDD) on Monday, March 14, 2022, to discuss the hiring process that current limited term (LT) employees working as Employment Program Representatives (EPR) can go through to apply to be hired on as a permanent intermittent (PI) EPR. We wanted to ensure we have a strong sense of how the process will look and how many positions will be available for application.

On Monday, December 20, 2021, SEIU Local 1000 met with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) regarding the discontinuation of the formal flex policy. We confirmed that DMV offers and supports four informal options (depending on operational need and coverage availability):

As part of an ongoing process of enhancing the work of their Contact Centers, EDD will be implementing the second phase – call monitoring – beginning August 31st for employees working on their VCC system in their Tax, Disability Insurance, and Unemployment Insurance branches.

Our Union team met with EDD on this issue on August 19, 2021, to lift up concerns about how this implementation may impact our employees performing these duties and to get some additional information about how this monitoring process will work.

On Tuesday, August 17, 2021, our Union met with the California State Teachers’ Retirement Fund (CalSTRS) to meet and confer over a notice that CalSTRS will be implementing screen capture and recording for Contact Center After Call Work (ACW). We were able to have an open conversation with management about the purpose and intention of these changes. CalSTRS expressed that this change is moving to be in line with Contact Center Industry Standards.

Key takeaways:

Every DSH facility is entitled to have a Health and Safety Committee, according to our MOU (contract), Section 10.2. Because of this, members of our Union are working hard to ensure Health and Safety Committees exist and are successful at each facility.

On March 29, 2021, our Union met with the State Compensation Insurance Fund (State Fund) management team. The JLMC resumed meeting to discuss the recent member-only work-life balance survey many of you participated in.

The survey results were generally positive, but members did respond with concerns about feeling overwhelmed at times and the challenges of maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

Some of the major details from the JLMC discussion include:

On May 3, 2021, our Union met with the Employment Development Department (EDD) to meet and confer over the implementation of Phase 1 of the contact center training and quality management tools.

On Tuesday, April 27, 2021, our Union met with the California Health Benefit Exchange, also known as Covered California (HBEX), to meet and confer over the soon-to-be implemented “Workday,” a Human Capital Management System (HCM) intended to modernize human resources (HR) functions. This system will replace the department’s current paper-driven business processes with automation solutions and system functionality.

On Tuesday, April 27, 2021, our Union met with the California Health Benefit Exchange, also known as Covered California (HBEX), to meet and confer over the soon-to-be implemented “Workday,” a Human Capital Management System (HCM) intended to modernize human resources (HR) functions. This system will replace the department’s current paper-driven business processes with automation solutions and system functionality.

On February 4, 2021, our Union met with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS) to meet and confer over the implementation of the institutional entrance screening policy at each institution throughout the state.

On Thursday, February 11, 2021, our DMV HEAT team held a Meet and Confer with management over the notice to re-open the Driver Safety Branch to the public as of February 16, 2021. DMV members strategized for this meeting based on conversations with many members from the Driver Safety branches across the state. Throughout this meeting, member leaders held management to task to ensure the health and safety of all SEIU Local 1000 members, as we continue to navigate the ongoing uncharted territory of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SEIU Local 1000 is aware that the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) has identified approximately 158 Management Services Technicians (MSTs) that they consider misallocated and who DIR believes are performing duties more accurately allocated to the Office Technician classification. SEIU Local 1000 is working diligently to research and explore all available options to put together the best possible course of action.

On August 12, 2020, our Union met with the State Compensation Insurance Fund (State Fund) to continue discussing the planned update of the Performance Appraisal process within the department. State Fund plans to remove the three tier rating system of inconsistent, successful, and exceptional from annual performance appraisals and instead rely on a process where management regularly communicates performance expectations and concerns to employees throughout the year.

Some of the major details from the negotiations include:

On September 15, 2020, our Union met with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to discuss the Field Office Temperature Screening Expansion implementation within DMV field offices throughout the state.

As part of the effort by the DMV to actively manage the spread and containment of COVID-19 in accordance with CDC and CDPH guidance, the Field Operations Division (FOD) will implement employee and customer focused screening protocols which will include a health questionnaire and temperature screening.

For the first time in 42 years, we were able to increase the Bilingual Pay Differential to $200/month. This comes after 20 years of fighting for an increase including a joint task force and hundreds of members telling their story. We have been fighting for the implementation of

Introduction to Application

Recruitment and Retention (R&R) (Article 5.17.1) is a victorious win for SEIU Local 1000 members. The purpose of this R&R is to provide a platform for the state and the Union to jointly come to a consensus on recruitment and retention issues that are impacting the classification and jointly bring them to the attention of the Director of CalHR and the Administration.

Meeting in a special joint “side table” with the state, Units 1 and 4 fought for and won a major advance for Lottery employees on Wednesday, August 21. The advance stands to update and improve the bonus structure for its field sales representatives in Unit 1 and the lottery ticket sales specialist series in Unit 4.

These are the workers on the front lines who drive Lottery revenues that contribute more than $1 billion annually to the state’s public schools and help create a California for All.

Local 1000’s Unit 1 bargaining team returned to the table on Monday, August 5, 2019 and continued to make progress by signing 9 Tentative Agreements (TA). Five of the TA’s were “roll-over” provisions from the current contract, while the other four were technical or clean up language change proposals that were agreed upon.

On Thursday July 25, 2019, Unit 1 went back to the table with state negotiators to advance more proposals that prioritize fair compensation and economic justice for all Unit 1 members.

Today our Unit 1 team presented a proposal that would:

• Increase and expand our out-of- state differential for Unit 1 employees so that workers who are headquartered out of state and/or have to travel more than 50 percent of the time for their job will be fairly compensated.

The team also proposed the following differentials:

Yesterday our Unit 1 bargaining team went to the table with their state counterparts to continue their push for more equitable compensation for the work that they do. The team submitted a comprehensive list of their Special Salary Adjustments (SSA) for Unit 1 state workers, whose value to our communities is still unequal to their pay.

Unit 1 also submitted a number of other workplace safety and education justice proposals to ensure that Unit 1 workers are protected on the job and have more opportunities to enhance their skills.

No Saturday Service in Field Offices on Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Weekends

On August 29, 2018, Local 1000 and DMV continued negotiations regarding the department’s intent to open field offices on the Saturday before Veterans Day (November 10) and the Saturday after Thanksgiving (November 24).  After long discussions around our negotiation team’s proposals, DMV has rescinded the requirement that the field offices be open on either day. This victory allows our DMV members to enjoy their upcoming holiday weekends.

On August 7th, 2018, our union met with the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Department of Juvenile Justice (CDCR DJJ) to discuss the implementation of the Cellsense Contraband Detector program within the DJJ Facilities in the state.

On June 6, 2018, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Heat Team met with management to continue to negotiate the impact of the implementation of Real ID.  Discussions were productive and positive as the team brought up a variety of concerns about workload, staffing levels, improving the Real ID process and providing Californians a better experience at the DMV field offices.

Specific issues that the DMV Heat Team raised were:

Bargaining unit representatives Susan Rodriguez (Unit 1, Alternate Vice Chair) and Sophia Perkins (Unit 4, Chair) met with State Fund and CalHR to negotiate impacts to existing performance standards and the creation of new performance standards for Workers Compensation Claims Adjusters (WCCA), Workers Compensation Insurance Technician (WCIT) and Program Technicians (PT) being implemented by State Fund.

Nearly 600 Local 1000 members working at CalPERS now have the opportunity for more career mobility after our union negotiated to protect and preserve the rights of Retirement Program Specialists (RPS) who are offered the chance to move laterally into new classifications.

Our bargaining team met with the state for the first time in three months and ended the week frustrated by a continued lack of movement by the state on key issues. 

Earlier in the week, our team presented eye-opening information illustrating the gender pay gap in state civil service. Our union is 66% women and 34% men. The seven unions the state has reached agreement with, overwhelmingly comprised of men, are paid a staggering 43% more than Local 1000 members.

Over the last few months the Unit 1 Bargaining team members and members in over 34 classifications prepared expert testimony to present to the California Human Resources (CalHR) department.  Listed below are the members who are doing excellent work in representing your classification group during this process. The last classification group presented their testimony and proposal to CalHR on February 4th.

Local 1000 has launched its 2016 contract campaign with these words from President Yvonne R. Walker: “Our contract will be about the strength and the power of our members to win something amazing.” 

Speaking to members statewide on a conference call for Local 1000 stewards and hundreds more who heard the call at listening parties, Walker looked forward to the upcoming negotiations feeling confident about the preparation that’s gone before.

Two representation wins for members who were initially denied sick leave prove, once again, that the collective strength of Local 1000 can make all the difference for members facing the indifferent bureaucracy of state government during a time of personal need. 

In accordance with Article 13.7.4 of our contract, State Compensation Insurance Fund (State Fund) notified the Union of their intent to implement performance standards for some Program Technicians and Worker’s Compensation Insurance Technicians working in the Claims Processing Centers. Per the contract, State Fund requested a meet and confer over the issue.

On August 24th and 25th a team representing 3 classifications met in Sacramento to negotiate with the state regarding the Recruitment and Retention issues they were currently experiencing.

The teams consisted of the following members:

Environmental Planners:

1. Claudia Gambaro, Military Department, Sacramento
2. Edvard Isaacs, Department of Transportation, Los Angeles
3. Lindsay Vivian, Department of Transportation, Oakland

Right of Way Agents:

Seventy Local 1000 members at the Employment Development Department (EDD) stepped up to soften the blow for some of their coworkers who faced reduced hours. As a result, what would have been a major reduction in work and pay for a few people was distributed among a larger group for a much less significant negative impact.

Local 1000 has launched a comprehensive survey that will advance the effort to review job specifications that have not been updated in decades.

We have made it a high priority to resolve the problems with IT classifications, training, compensation and outsourcing. The state has committed to working with the union by modernizing the IT classification system. Both parties recognize a mutual interest in adapting to the changes in a field with a highly competitive labor market. 

Recruitment and retention is moving forward in Bargaining Unit 1.  Local 1000 has set a May 5 meeting with CalHR to discuss ground rules and the order in which to discuss information about the various classification and classification groupings. 

The Bargaining Unit Negotiation Committee members have been assigned to the classifications/groups and are working on organizing those groups and building support in the field for the groups to which they have been assigned.

The BUNC members who have been assigned to each group are as follows:

In a huge win, Local 1000’s DMV “HEAT Team” signed up 1000 new members.

“Our DMV HEAT Team is doing some amazing work,” said Local 1000 President Yvonne R. Walker.

“Our DMV member leaders are setting an example—and raising the standard—for everyone in Local 1000. It really shows the power of effective workplace organizing.”

Building power in the community, facing challenges and developing union leaders were key themes of last week’s meeting of the Statewide Bargaining Advisory Council (SBAC) in Southern California.

Nearly 200 elected bargaining representatives from up and down California—including the 60-plus members who negotiate our contract with the state—meet three times each year to develop strategies for bargaining and to understand and respond to issues that affect our lives at work and at home.

Local 1000 is aggressively pushing a grievance over the ratio of Permanent Intermittent (PI) employees at the Employment Development Department (EDD) to arbitration after the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) recently rejected our claim. 
Our contract has long-standing language limiting the number of PI employees to no more than 20 percent of the number of staff positions in each of the EDD departments. 

The Bargaining Unit 1 Recruitment and Retention (R&R) Team has completed reviewing the applications and have selected the classifications that will be presented to the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) for assessment.  The R&R team would like to thank the 500 members that took the time to complete these applications and represent their classifications issues. 

The following are the ten classification/classification series that have been selected to be presented to CalHR for review:

After months of collaboration with state officials to address issues facing EDD, Local 1000 hosted new Director Patrick Henning Jr. in a meeting with Local 1000 stewards, to hear first-hand the comments and concerns of rank-and-file workers now in his charge. He came to underscore his commitment to “helping Californians when they are at possibly the lowest point in their lives.”

Local 1000’s bargaining team signed the first tentative agreement of our new contract at the master table today, one that provides a huge advance in our fight against outsourcing.

After a seven-year campaign, aviation consultants win a much deserved pay raise.
Aviation consultants, a small group of Unit 1 members in Caltrans whose job is crucial to public safety, will receive a 7.5 percent pay increase under terms negotiated by Local 1000; this pay raise is retroactive to July 2, 2013.
“This has been a long time coming – we’ve been pressing Caltrans for this raise for seven years,” said Bargaining Unit 1 Chair Brenda Modkins. “We owe this win to the aviation consultants who fought so hard to make this possible.”

Our Unit 1 team – representing Professional Administrative, Financial and Staff Services – spent 18 hours negotiating with the state Friday and Sunday, and signed tentative agreements addressing several of the priorities of Unit 1 members.
 

The Unit 1 bargaining team – representing Professional Administrative, Financial and Staff Services – was at the table today.

65 memos reduced to one, unfair expectations dropped

On July 11, 2012, an updated and standardized “expectations memo” was distributed by DMV to statewide offices that included many of the suggestions brought forth by the Local 1000 DMV team.

On Thursday, September 20, over 80 Sacramento members and staff found a festive way to conduct some serious business – educate voters on the dangers of Proposition 32.
 
Unit 1 member organizer Dee Dee Munson and Unit 4 member organizer Lorraine Dewitt created a night of training, raffles, poster-making and all around good fun to get more members politically involved.
 

MyCalPays begins pilot testing at the State Controller’s Office

As the State Controller’s Office (SCO) works to overhaul the state’s antiquated payroll system, Local 1000’s team has been involved at every step to monitor their progress and mitigate its impact on state workers. The new system is called MyCalPays and will not only affect Unit 1 employees who process payroll, but all state employees, who will eventually have to transition to the new system.

Unit 1 member combats outsourcing with professionalism and pride

Once a contract employee with the state, Mike Bonner now partners with Local 1000 to help put a stop to the outsourcing of bargaining unit work. Not only does Mike lend his unique expertise to help identify contracts that cost the state unnecessarily, he trains other Local 1000 members to help do the same. During his time as a contract employee, he saw a great amount of waste and instances of bargaining unit work being done by contractors and he knew it had to change.

Bullying has always been a problem in the workplace, and Local 1000 has been taking steps to help members understand what it is and how to address it. 

Marie Harder, Vice Chair of Unit 1, has been busy giving presentations in 12 different departments on “abuse in the workplace.”  She covers definitions of discrimination under the Civil Rights Act, what constitutes workplace violence, what is bullying, and protections in our contract and in the law.  

Because of the lobbying strength of our members, the Board of Equalization (BOE) announced Tuesday it has shelved a proposal to outsource some accounts receivable collections to a private firm.

The original proposal called for a portion of uncollected accounts receivable to be outsourced to an undisclosed private vendor. Ever since this came to light, Local 1000 members and staff have pressured BOE to drop the proposal because this type of outsourcing doesn’t save money and private collection agencies are less accountable.

Surplus letters are now available for State Fund employees who are scheduled to relocate in 2012. Employees impacted by the relocation can request a surplus letter from SCIF Human Resources.

Surplus letters give you priority hiring status. Unlike SROA status, you are not notified of vacancies by hiring agencies and must seek out job opportunities on your own.

Important dates for you to know:

May 15-31:
Time period to cash out 80 hours of accrued time if you’re relocating more than 35 miles (Article 13).

June 1:

The State Compensation Insurance Fund (State Fund) has announced that layoffs will take place, affecting employees throughout the state

“It’s outrageous that we are learning about this now – just after completing a battle over jobs and work locations at State Fund,” said Margarita Maldonado, Local 1000 vice president for bargaining. “It’s clear that State Fund’s business model isn’t working and that management saw these layoffs coming, even when we were fighting to mitigate the effects of downsizing earlier this year.”

Local 1000 has filed a grievance to stop the Employment Development Department’s (EDD) mandate that employees work outside their prescribed shifts without pay. Although “set-up and shutdown time” is paid work time under our contract, EDD has directed employees to work before and after their assigned start and end times.

Twenty-four Unit 1 members participated in a “contract review marathon” on Jan. 7 and 8 in Sacramento. The goal of the review is to identify superfluous outsourcing contracts to defend against State Personnel Board (SPB) challenges, Joint Labor Management Committees (JLMCs), and provide information to legislative committees. Fifty-two contracts were analyzed and 87 were targeted for additional analysis.
Interesting findings:

Local 1000 represents nine different bargaining units and over 95,000 state employees. The power of these numbers enables us to make workplace improvements that make life better for everyone.

This is a summary of the tentative agreement for Unit 1. To learn more about all tentative agreements, visit the Contract Ratification page.

Establish JLMCs (Joint Labor Management Committees) on workload for:

The last straw for the thirty correctional case records analysts and technicians working at Case Records North in Rancho Cordova was this outrageous remark by a CDCR manager: “If you’re having stress at work, it’s because you’re having problems at home. Stop taking your home-problems to work.”
An overwhelming majority of employees did a “Vote of No Confidence” petition and marched in on a new head manager last month. Employees demanded a Joint Labor Management Committee (JLMC) to focus on workload issues and management harassment. The JLMC was agreed to on the spot.

A major organizational priority this summer is political activism. Unit 1 members are committed to electing local and statewide candidates who support public services – and then hold them accountable. The November election is coming up and we need even more volunteers to ensure the right candidates win. If you can help, contact unit1@seiu1000.org.
Here is what’s been happening:

After pressure by Local 1000, the Employment Development Department (EDD) converted 24 permanent intermittent positions to full-time positions last month, bringing the total number of conversions to 630 over the past five years.
Local 1000 has successfully argued that EDD was understaffed even before the economic recession began in 2008 and the unemployment rate spiked above 12 percent, which forced the department to hire more than 1,000 people.

The first ever Local 1000 IT Professionals Conference was held the weekend of April 17 in downtown Sacramento. IT professionals were able to network, get hands-on training and learn about trends in a fast-changing industry.

“We hope this conference will set the stage for future events that will focus on the professional needs of the state’s IT workforce and other occupational groups within Unit 1,” commented Margarita Maldonado, chair of Bargaining Unit 1 and an associate information systems analyst at the Department of Justice.
Conference workshops included:

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is proposing to transfer assigned staff vehicles to an office car pool and reduce telework options for employees who investigate allegations of patient abuse. 
The union’s concern is that these administrative changes will make it more difficult for employees to efficiently handle high caseloads and actually reduce services to the public.

For more information, contact Paul Romero, health facility evaluator II, at paul.romero@cdph.ca.gov.

Members back effort to improve service during tough times

Local 1000 is sponsoring new legislation which would allow out-of-work Californians much needed, in-person assistance with their unemployment claims.

AB 1827 addresses gaps in current law, and would require the Employment Development Department (EDD) to assign one UI representative to each of at least 50 one-stop and career centers.

An SEIU-sponsored bill would improve the delivery of services to the unemployed. AB 1827, which has been introduced by Assembly Members Juan Arambula (Ind-Fresno) and Jose Solario (D-Anaheim), would amend the Unemployment Insurance Code to require California to have available walk-in unemployment insurance (UI) services, provided by current UI-funded and fully-trained workers in regional one-stop centers.
For more information visit Politics & Legislation >> Local 1000-backed legislation.

As part of an invitation extended by the State Personnel Board (SPB), Brenda Modkins, Alternate Vice-Chair of Bargaining Unit 1, attended the focus group on behalf of Local 1000. Only one other state union attended the meeting.

The Union was notified in December 2009 that 15 of its members were no longer eligible to participate in a 403(B) retirement plan due to eligibility changes by the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). 

About 2% of Unit 1’s 45,000 members have pending grievances. The four departments with the largest number of grievances are: Employment Development Department (EDD) — 327 cases; California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) — 95 cases; Caltrans — 93 cases; and State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) — 66 cases.  

Here’s a sampling of some recent wins:

Overtime opportunity & out-of-class work