Supervisor Interest Arbitration

Good morning Brothers and Sisters, I know the posts and updates have been few and far between. We have been working nonstop on negotiations, arbitration prep, and all of the daily back and forth with the state. I am happy to report that on the initial Unit N (supervisors) CBA, we have reached a tentative agreement on all of the articles, with the exception of the Leave Article. While there has been some give and take in resolving the other articles, the Leave Article proved impossible to resolve. The state wanted us to agree to less benefits for the supervisors and this just was not ever something that we would agree to. Why is this article so critical? The reason is because your benefits are important and should have continuity with the Unit I (officers/forensics) CBA.

The 3 main issues were the carry forward limit of 480 hours, the annual leave cash out, and the 2 personal days. The state wants you to stay with 240 hours of carry forward, zero cash out of annual leave every year, and zero personal days. The carry forward is very important as you can bank more annual leave hours which can lead to a greater payout upon retirement and if you ever have a FMLA situation, you can be assured that you will have plenty of hours to cover your leave without loss of pay. The annual benefit of this in combination with the annual leave cash out, would certainly give you extra income each year and the comfort of knowing you have leave when you need it. This particular provision, in the amount of 480 or greater, is present in almost every single relevant CBA for law enforcement in Nevada. Not too mention every current CBA that the state has negotiated grants 480 to all of the union CBAs. We simply could not accept less than this as it is an industry standard in Nevada. We feel very strong about our position on this item. The annual leave cash out was another provision that is present in most law enforcement CBAs and in every current state CBA. The amounts vary, to include Reno where you can sell back 420 hours in a single year!!! 80 hours in a year is not an unreasonable ask and we feel strongly about our position on this provision as well. The state is arguing that they don’t have a budget for this, but annual leave is budgeted for every year for every employee. The absurdity of their position would seem to defy logic in every other state but Nevada. Yet, here we are fighting an unnecessary battle due to abstinence by the state. Lastly, personal days, where every state CBA grants them and in some cases, other bargaining units get even more than 2 personal days. Law enforcement agencies generally have some form of this whether they are called professional days or personal days. The position on this is simply give the supervisors the same that you give the officers, just like the rest of the items at issue. This is also supported by the rest of the CBAs that we submitted as evidence.

What can you expect moving forward? We attempted to expedite the decision process, but yet again, the state would not agree, in an effort to delay the decision even further. The timeline looks like we will get the decision in the middle of May. Our next interest arbitration will be April 4th for the Unit N Compensation article. This is yet another example of the state being obstinate and unwilling to agree to a fair compensation agreement that is consistent with the Unit I CBA. For example, the state want less uniform allowance, no retention, less holiday pay, and only a 10% difference from officer to Sgt and Sgt to Lt. this is much different than the industry standard which is typically at least 20% between both ranks. We are fighting for all of these provisions and more with input from the supervisors committee who are acting on your behalf to give me the information I need to address these matters as chief negotiator.

I assure you our resolve is not wavering and we will continue to fight on your behalf. This process is excruciatingly slow and we continue to try to speed things up. When we get an update, we will circulate the news. Thank you for your support.