Unit 1: Professional Administrative, Financial and Staff services

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:

On Wednesday, June 23, 2021, SEIU Local 1000 met with the Department of State Hospitals (DSH) to meet and discuss over the status and future of Health and Safety Committees at all five facilities, per Section 10.2 of the MOU. At this meeting, member leaders represented all the DSH facilities, except for Atascadero. Positive steps were taken and will continue in order to ensure success for Health and Safety Committees at each facility to appropriately address concerns collaboratively with management and all staff unions.

Our Union team met again with the Employment Development Department (EDD) regarding the plan to reopen certain WSB offices up for in-person service by appointment.

Earlier this week, our Union team held our first discussion with EDD regarding their plan to reopen the public counters for customer appointments at many Workforce Services Branch (WSB) offices statewide. This meeting was an opportunity to address specific concerns that our members have brought up about returning to in-person service.

On Tuesday, May 4, 2021, SEIU Local 1000 met with the Department of State Hospitals (DSH) to meet and confer over DSH’s application for a permanent exemption to the California Standards for Workplace Violence Prevention in Healthcare, which mandates guidelines for reporting to the Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) regarding workplace violence incidences.

On Tuesday, April 13, 2021, our DMV H.E.A.T. team met with management to continue discussions over the reopening of the Driver Safety Branches to the public. This meeting was a follow-up to the initial meet and confer held on February 11, 2021. Much like the first meeting, our DMV H.E.A.T. team members centered their strategy on conversations with members from Driver Safety Branches across the state. Our team continued to pressure management to address all health and safety concerns for our members related to COVID-19.

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.