Let’s Talk About Management Leave
Management Leave is a City policy (HRAR 8.03) that grants up to 80 hours additional paid leave per calendar year to non-reps “who are not eligible for overtime compensation” with the intent to “recognize exceptional additional individual efforts, performance and achievements, including but not limited to beyond the standard workweek”.
We have heard from a number of you who are concerned that, should we unionize, you will lose your management leave benefit. We hear you. And we agree that management leave is wonderful to receive!
But did you know that some non-reps – including high-performers and those working plenty of extra hours – have never received management leave? Many have never even heard of it! Only a lucky few routinely get the maximum 80 hours (though that is becoming rarer by the year). We don’t think that’s fair, and we are confident we can do better.
By joining together as an 800-strong collective bargaining unit, we provide ourselves with choices.
For example, in lieu of management leave, we might choose to negotiate for overtime pay. We may also choose to negotiate for higher paid time off accruals. Or, we could choose to negotiate for a “new and improved” management leave benefit – perhaps with some checks and balances and clear award criteria – that gives all employees an equal opportunity to benefit from the program.
Many City professionals, including Accountants, Engineers, and Business Systems Analysts, have already negotiated for overtime pay at time and a half. They also chose to bank up to 80 hours of that overtime pay as “comp” time. All of your represented colleagues at the City also receive a guaranteed annual raise (“step increase”) that gets them to the top of their pay scale within a reasonable time frame, as well as a guaranteed cost of living adjustment. As a non-rep, there are no guarantees. As recent history has shown, your management leave, merit increase, cost of living adjustment, and other benefits can be cut, capped, or eliminated at any time.
Most importantly, it’s not an “either/or” decision between unionizing or management leave: Voting “Yes” on election day puts us squarely in the driver seat, and puts these choices in our lap.
Your CPPW organizing committee is committed to democracy in the workplace, and we would love to hear from you on this topic, or on anything else that is important to you!
Please Contact Us today and let us know what you think!
