Re: Failure to Credit Emergency Comp Time.

Contract Section 38-14

Dear COBA Members;

As you all know, Section 38-14.2 of our Contract states:

"Any employee who is required to remain at work after the County Executive or designated representative had dictated that extraordinary circumstances exist for that particular geographic region, or location within Nassau County shall receive equivalent compensatory time off at straight time, hour for hour, as the employees who were sent home or directed not to work.

For some reason there are those that are under the impression that COBA did not intend to fight to have this clause in our contract enforced. If you review several past emails on this subject, that could not be farther from the truth. COBA will always fight to have every clause in our contact honored at all times.

What we did impress upon our members was that COBA will not argue the merits of this fight in a public forum during this pandemic, where people are dying every day in Nassau County, and the number one priority of this union is the health and safety of our members and their families.

To be clear, COBA has had numerous conversations and correspondence with the County as well as other Bargaining Units in Nassau regarding this Comp Time issue.

While we have demanded that we be compensated for what our contract directs, the county has wavered numerous times in their responses, while at the same time directed other Depts to keep accurate records of this comp time in the "Chief Payroll System" (Police Dept Civilians) and the "Intime Payroll System" (most other County Employees). Our Dept uses the "NUHRS Payroll System" where our hours of work are easily accounted for.

To date, no employee in any other County agency that is accounting for these comp time hours has been allowed to utilize these banked hours.

What the County has repeatedly stated to us and other Unions is that while they are accounting for this time, they have no intention of actually allowing any employees to utilize it because of the fiscal impact it would have on the County.

With regard to the accounting of this time, COBA has demanded that our Dept keep accurate records of these accruals as they are doing in other County Units.

We also ask that our Members keep accurate account of all time worked.

With all this said, COBA filed a Class Action Grievance against the County today for their failure to properly enforce section 38-14 of our contract.

We will update you more on this issue as events unfold.

In Unity;

Brian Sullivan, COBA President