PBA gave the following proposals to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office at negotiations today (01/31/11).

Before we give this update (especially on wages), let's get some things cleared up. Please remember Fiscal Year (FY) runs Oct - Oct. For those who believe the rumors that we haven't had a pay raise in more than 2 years, you need to know the following and then consider if the source of misinformation is operating in your best interests ... think about it!

FY08/09 - we were still under the PBA contract and paid our respective 3% step and 3% COLA (unless topped out and you still got a bonus instead of a step increase)

FY09/10 - OCSO refused to give deputies any money so the PBA has an active lawsuit trying to get us merit step pay that is currently under review in the District Court of Appeals (see below on our FB or at www.cfpba.org).

Article 25 (Wages) - proposed today for FY10/11 and FY11/12
(A) Effective Oct 1, 2010, all steps shall be adjusted by adding $1100 to each step. On April 4, 2011, the OCSO Pay Plan will be adjusted by a two percent (2%) increase and shall include the Court Service Officer grade 251, the Deputy grade 252, the Corporal grade 262, and the Sergeant grade 272.
(B) Effective October 1, 2011, each bargaining unit member shall advance one (1) step on his hire date or on his promotional day, whichever is applicable. Bargaining unit members who are at the top of their step shall receive a three percent (3%) bonus on their anniversary dates or promotional dates.
(C) Effective the first pay period in April 2012, all steps shall be given a general wage increase (GWI) of two percent (2%).

Article 27 (Health Insurance) - PBA proposed ways to offset healthcare costs via the following.
• using the nearly 1 million dollars from employees "opting out" of the Health Plan to help the deputies and their families (we asked them to tell us where the 1 million dollars is and they replied they did not know but will look into it)
• OCSO pay $50 per pay period (p/p/p) instead of $25 p/p/p for employees who Opt Out
• one PBA rep (MD Don Doyle) is already assigned to the health care committee but we are also seeking one supervisor as well as 2 other alternates (1 for the deputies and 1 for the supervisors)
• Arbitration Panel established to handle Health Insurance grievances
• we also shared horror stories that our members have faced in this health care nightmare

Article 28 (Specialty Pay, etc)

• No limits on assignment and specialty pays
• Add SRT (Meth Lab), TOPS, CISMT and DIVE (5+ years) specialty pays

Article 33 (Duration)
The contract shall be effective October 1, 2009 through September 30, 2012.

Article 6 (Grievance Procedures)
• Discipline goes through the grievance process but not arbitration
• Highly successful Discipline Dispute Resolution Program (DDRP) included in the contract
• Drop our proposed Discipline Appeals Panel structure

Article 7 (Discipline)
go back to Present Contract Language (PCL)

Article 8 (Pool Time)
PBA proposed a consolidated PBA pool bank so supervisors can use your donated time to help fight for you locally and especially in Tallahassee to protect your pension and insurance benefits! We also requested a Memo of Understanding (MOU) to expedite this process.

Article 9 (Promotions)
go back to Present Contract Language (PCL) to avoid Corporals having to wait multiple years for promotion opportunities

Article 13 (Compliance)
If during the term of this Agreement, the Sheriff provides additional employment benefits, wage adjustments or salary increases to more than 50% of non-bargaining unit employees, the Sheriff shall notify the PBA and, upon the request of the PBA, negotiate over such benefits, adjustment or increase for bargaining unit members.

Article 18 (Leave, Workers Comp, Disability & Personnel Issues, Grievance Procedures)
include "National Emergencies" for Military Leave.

Article 22 (Transfers)
• allows FTO squad members to transfer before end of 12 month probationary period
• allows Homicide Unit members to transfer "in" via resume but cannot admin transfer "out" wherever they want to go
• allows Intel, ESST, PSD, Staff Inspections and PIO to admin transfer "in" but no admin transfer out wherever they want to go

PBA also requested full-time deputies to have first rights to off duty job opportunities after we discovered some reserve deputies were working a high volume of hours that included more than 6500 hours of off duty work done by a small number of reserve deputies last year.

We will have the actual contract proposals online soon so please be patient and remember that these are only proposals that the OCSO has NOT responded to ... yet.

The next negotiations are on Feb 14 so give your love a hug, kiss and gift before you come to negotiations on Valentines Day. Maybe the Sheriff will even show us some love that day ... LOL!