The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association recently prevailed in a heated interest arbitration with the City and County of San Francisco Sheriff’s Office over the terms of a successor contract. The continued ability of the DSA membership to earn and burn compensatory time off (CTO) was the highest priority issue for both parties. CCSF wanted to restrict this right in order to reduce overtime costs associated with the department’s chronic under staffing. Despite that the DSA retained the right to earn and burn compensatory time off in the 2019 contract negotiations interest arbitration, the department attempted to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to unilaterally eliminate member’s compensatory time off rights.
The Earn and Burn Compensatory Time Off was one of the few personal time off leaves that allowed our members to recover from a highly stressful job in a negative environment where morale is at an all time low. Also this time off, prevented the department from excessively conducting salary savings. The Earn and Burn CTO ate into the savings of running overtime excessively and put the department in a position to hire more staff. This was the only thing left to discourage them from exploiting salary savings, which is relying heavily on overtime instead of hiring needed deputy sheriffs.
On March 23, 2020, the Sheriff’s Office announced that it was suspending CTO earn and burn based on the COVID-19 public health emergency. The “emergency” exceptions to meet and confer requirements are limited. The Sheriff did not have any financial emergency or staffing shortage that warranted the change. Rather, it was evident CCSF saw another opportunity, citing COVID-19, to accomplish its goal of taking away CTO earn and burn . Violating the DSA’s contract gives the Sheriff’s Office the opportunity to exploit and abuse the salary savings scheme conducting more overtime and hiring less deputy sheriffs.
On April 28, 2020, SFDSA filed another charge based on CCSF’s unilateral decision to suspend the Compensatory Time Off (CTO) agreement. The CTO agreement allows DSA members to “earn” CTO up to 160 hours and then “burn” the hours before they can accrue again. CCSF has made numerous attempts to take away CTO earn and burn.
On December 2, 2020, PERB issued a complaint alleging CCSF committed an unfair labor practice by failing to provide notice and an opportunity to meet and confer over its unilaterally implemented changes to CTO earn and burn.
The declared COVID-19 “public health emergency” does not give employers free reign to unilaterally implement changes to wages, hours, or working conditions within the scope of representation.
Read our filled court case here: https://sanfranciscodsa.com/san-francisco-sheriff-miyamoto-violates-deputy-sheriffs-union-contract-2/