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Issue's Articles: We corrected a county blunder at long last. As you all will so vividly recall from our last dispatch, we represented a member who’d been brutally axed from his job with the Department of Parks and Recreation. (The names of the department and member weren’t provided previously.) Okay, maybe you don’t vividly recall it. In brief, CEA member Rudy Valenzuela was charged with abandoning his job. He’d worked for the department for about 9 years and had positive performance evaluations, with no attendance problems. Late in 1999, his mother became ill with cancer. He requested vacation time to spend time with her and monitor her health. After he thought that his request was going to be denied, he felt that he had no choice but to resign to care for her. He called his supervisor, Gene Hilliard, and told him he wanted to resign because he wanted to spend the time his mother had left with her. Around 2 months later he found out that the department had placed him on an unauthorized leave of absence and intended to fire him. After a perfunctory Skelly hearing, he was fired on April 6, 2000 for excessive absences. In November 2000, the hearing officer in the case, Irene Ayala, found that the department’s witnesses lacked credibility and knowledge about the federal and state family leave acts. She recommended Valenzuela’s reinstatement. In February 2001, the Civil Service Commission sustained the recommendation. In March 2001, Valenzuela returned to work. It took a long time, but we stuck it out. Ayala wrote that the department “is justified in requiring Appellant [Valenzuela] to follow its attendance policy due to the disruption caused by any excessive, unauthorized absenteeism. A violation of the attendance policy would generally be good cause for discipline, including discharge. However, based upon the facts of the case presented at the appeal hearing, Appellant’s discharge is unjustified.” Ayala applied the federal and state family leave acts to the facts and found that Valenzuela’s supervisor, Hilliard, the regional grounds maintenance supervisor and John Wicker, the acting assistant director, “did not have an understanding of their legal responsibilities under the family and medical leave policy.” “Mr. Hilliard was not truthful when he insisted that he had informed Appellant of his option to take a leave under the provisions of the family leave policies in place by the Respondent,” she wrote. “He told Mr. Wicker he had informed Appellant of that option, but at the hearing he contradicted himself and said he did not feel it was necessary to discuss the family leave option with Appellant since Appellant was not the one who was going to directly care for his mother.” Ayala’s analysis was incisive and correct. But here’s another way of putting: Hilliard didn’t know whether to scratch his watch or wind his ass. That goes for Wicker too….Valenzuela never thought he’d need us, but when he did, we came through. • Remember the days when our grandfathers and fathers worked way past their prime doing hard manual labor? They didn’t even think about retirement. Today, many of us wonder if we’ll live long enough to retire. We may not work as hard as our parents did, but we have jobs that are put our lives at risk every day. That’s why the County of Coalition Unions is currently seeking Safety Retirement for all Peace Officer members at “3% at 50” and “2˝% at 55” formulas. Currently, 72% of California counties offer Safety Retirement or are negotiating to provide it. Such a formula would allow the peace officer force to remain relatively young so that public safety can be ensured. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors should agree. LACERA reserves are overflowing with billions of dollars that the attorney general has opined can only be used to enhance retirement. AFSCME Local 685 has pushed Safety Retirement as a key demand at the Coalitions of County Unions Fringe negotiations table. If you have any questions regarding Safety Retirement, call me at 661.267.8924. Lorenzo Sandoval is an Executive Board Member of the Coalitions of County Unions and a CEA Board Member |