UPDATE: Change in Overtime Policy

The negotiated change to the Overtime Policy will be reflected in the next paycheck (the one issued January 30, for this week and last week's work.) SHARE recently received this revised implementation date from Human Resources, which comes sooner than reported in a previous blog post.

These changes will not affect SHARE members in Animal Medicine, Psych Continuing Care Units, and Public Safety.

In the most recent SHARE-UMMS contract negotiations, the Medical School management team approached our union with the intent to reduce the Overtime paid to SHARE members. The SHARE negotiating team contended that many members rely on OT as an essential part of their wages. And, because some departments use OT as an inherent part of their staffing model, or sometimes mandate employees to work OT in order to get urgent work done, maintaining the OT pay standards would be particularly important there.

After research and discussion, we reached an agreement with the employer that makes some changes to the policy, but which works to protect those core concerns. The new policy, as it appears in the current SHARE contract, is copied below.

Overtime

Monday-Friday, day-shift-only departments:

Employees in these departments shall be compensated at the rate of time and one-half their regular rate of pay for authorized overtime work performed in excess of forty (40) hours per week. Effective 1/1/2015, if sick leave, vacation time, holiday compensatory time or personal time is used in the same work week, it shall not be considered as time worked for the purposes of calculating overtime compensation. Holidays shall be considered time worked for the purpose of calculating overtime compensation. It is the intention of the parties that employees in these departments should not generally be forced to work overtime. If a particular department requires the use of forced overtime, the parties will meet to discuss the matter.

Departments with weekend shifts, evening shifts or night shifts:

Employees in these departments shall be compensated at the rate of time and one-half their regular rate of pay for authorized overtime work performed in excess of forty (40) hours per week. For employees in these departments, holidays, vacation time, holiday compensatory time and personal time shall continue to be considered time worked for the purpose of calculating overtime compensation. Sick time shall not be considered time worked for the purpose of calculating overtime compensation. Employees in these departments shall continue to be compensated at the rate of time and one-half their regular rate of pay for authorized overtime work performed in excess of their regularly scheduled shift, as long as that shift is at least 8 hours.

These departments are: Animal Medicine, Psych Continuing Care Units, and Public Safety.

Review of effect of overtime rules:

UMMS and SHARE will convene a joint committee to study the effect of this Overtime article on departments and employees, in both kinds of departments. If there are concerns on either side, the parties will discuss them. (See also Side Letter on Overtime and UMMS Finances.)

2015 SHARE Dues

SHARE bi-weekly dues will increase in January 2015:

• For full-time employees the new rate will be $16.78/paycheck. (The 2014 rate was $16.48.)

• For employees budgeted for 20 hours/week, the new rate will be prorated at $12.59/paycheck. (The 2014 rate was $12.37)

The dues rates are set by our parent union, AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), every year. If there's a rate change it happens in January and the new rate is based on the average salary raise that all 1.5 million members across the country got in the previous year. 

Where do the dues go?

Most of the dues pay for SHARE staff, the office rent, office supplies, mailings, etc. The money supports the work of the union here at the Medical School (and in our sister unions at UMass Memorial, Harvard University, and the Cambridge Health Alliance) helping members with issues at work, building connections across the campuses, supporting people who have been laid off, distributing information about issues of importance to SHARE members, negotiating contracts, etc. 

The remaining portion of the dues goes to the national union in Washington -- they spend that money on advocating for AFSCME members as a whole, including research and lobbying about issues. (Support for political candidates comes from AFSCME's Political Action Committee, not from dues money.) 

Questions?

If you have any questions about the 2015 dues rates, please contact the SHARE office at: 

share.umms@theshareunion.org 

508-929-4020