On Thursday, July 14, SEIU Local 1000 met with the OCE to discuss both the Expectations Memo and the Laptop Program. 

On Thursday, July 14, SEIU Local 1000 met with the OCE to discuss both the Expectations Memo and the Laptop Program. 

We brought up several concerns and asked about the historical background and intent of the Expectations Letter. We expressed our frustration with the Expectations Letter being redundant and repetitive, containing the same information as the job description and duty statement that gets signed year after year. We reminded management that the essential duties have not changed, but expectations have changed. Management informed us that the Expectations Letter document is not essential functions, its employee conduct, work expectations, and is not made to address the essential functions. OCE was not swayed by the concerns being raised and will be distributing the memo to education staff in the coming weeks. Our team is monitoring the roll-out of this expectations memo, and welcome input from all of you with any concerns that you have as it is distributed. 

Our Team also wanted to learn more information about the intent and the increased responsibilities the Laptop Program will carry. We learned that the use of laptops is optional, and the intent is to supplement instruction in each educational program. The teachers are able to choose whether or not to incorporate them, and will not be forced to use them. The OCE management assured that the principal training is clear that the use of laptops is supplemental. We expressed our biggest concern of the time consumption to have to monitor, support and track so many laptop devices.  Our team plans to continue conversations with OCE as the laptop program is rolled out at further institutions to ensure that the intent of the program stated by OCE is carried out at the institutions. 

We encourage our impacted employees to inform us of any additional concerns they have related to the distribution of the Expectations Memo and the implementation of the Laptop Program. To do so, call the Member Resource Center (MRC) at 866.471.7348 (SEIU). You can also contact your Bargaining Unit Chair at [email protected]