So it’s been a while since
the last post. Just want to update everyone regarding a couple issues which have
been brought to my attention. Also, I will give my opinion on a few things.
First the tire issue. Several of our officers have significant damage to
their tires. The damage is the same type of damage received by many of us due
to the spike strips not working properly or being maintained properly last
year. Well it seems to be happening again. EVERYONE
PLEASE CHECK YOUR TIRES. As of this date the company is looking the other
way and refusing to admit that the strips are once again causing damage to the
tires of the officers vehicles. They refuse to pay saying that in their opinion
the strips are working properly. The union will now officially get involved. I
will be meeting with company exec’s on Aug 4. For those of you who have damage
please email me your names and any pictures you can produce. If this issue
isn’t given immediate attention we will move quickly to a level outside the
company and file complaints. I am sure we will get the company to address this
properly. Email me privately or call me and I will explain.
Second issue to address is
the carrying of a piece of equipment in a particular area while performing a
weekly test. Carrying this item is not in any procedure. Our first and second
in charge agreed to address my concern and my request to stop carrying this
item and exceeding written procedure for no good reason. In fact carrying this
item cannot be located in our company’s procedure as well. The procedure given
to me by the SSS (who insists he is right and the agency which governs us is
wrong) states clearly that this item is not needed nor required. This same agency
has emailed me stating that this item is not required as well. But the SSS says
they are wrong! Pretty funny what some people think of themselves isn’t it? I
will straighten this out one way or the other. We just want clarity. If it’s a procedure
there’s not much we can do about it…if it is not there is plenty we can do
about it.
Thirdly , Tethering an item to ourselves I Spoke to the first and second in charge. They do
not agree that this should happen. In fact, it was turned down once before by
them. However, they are now getting a lot of pressure from corporate. It seems
everyone else in the free world tethers this item, so it looks like we may have
to. Probably in a few weeks. I believe the Finn and Mac personnel will be
tethered. BUT THIS IS NOT A DEFINITE YET.
Let’ wait and see if our leaders can dismiss this yet again. The union is
directly involved and we are doing our best to eliminate this insane demand.
Lastly your REG 15 min OT pay. Each shift that we work we get what is called REG OT. This is printed on our pay stub as REG OT as well. This is the regular pay we get for
briefing and gearing up prior to going to brief and post. For instance, those
of you who take the hour early when it is offered, you sign in at 05:45 for the
reason I just stated. However, if you are asked to come in 2 hours early at
05:00 you are told to sign in at 05:00. WHY!?! Because management says so?! I
guess you don’t get REG 15 min OT for 2 hours
early only one hour early. Let’s go a step further. If you are asked to stay
longer, lets say to 21:00, by regulation you must now have 10 hours off before
starting you very next shift. So you cannot start shift the next day until O7:00.
But you don’t get to sit in at brief and receive your REG
15 min OT, but you are expected to have your gear on ready to gear up at
07:00 just like always! You must sign in at 07:00, I REITERATE, you lose your REG 15 min OT. REG
means regularly. Apparently however, unless a SS or SSS chooses NOT TO PAY
YOU for whatever reason they want. One more step further, if you stay and work
till 21:30 you must take your 10 hour break and then start at 07:30 the very
next shift. I have no problem abiding by the rules, but let’s abide by all the
rules. Pay me the REG 15 min OT on the back end
of the shift. We shouldn’t lose money because of a company rule or agency rule.
SSS & SS are manipulating officer’s hours and not even informing us. We
work 12 hour shifts with REG 15 min OT on either end of the shift.
When I came off of
disability, I had 1 week of lite duty, 07:00 to 15:00. NO
REG OT. That’s because there is no brief or gearing up. However, when I
started my first day of FULL DUTY at
07:00 the company would not allow me to sit at brief. So I lost the REG 15 min OT. They simply didn’t want to pay me for
15 min. THIS IS WRONG! And I plan to stop it. If it is just an expectation of
management for us to be in our seats with our gear on at 06:45 then I will fight
to get everybody who has ever been disciplined for arriving between 06:45 and
07:00 expunged. If it is a policy or procedure then we should always receive
our 15 min of REG OT when we report for a full
duty 12 hour shift.
Moving forward, when you are
told something about your pay, hours, time, OT, or whatever, get it in an email
from the person who is telling you or you will be a victim of the company’s deception. I’ve learned my lesson and what little trust I had
for some people is lost. I will work vigorously to make sure our pay is fair and correct for all of us. I also will
be aggressive in fighting the deceptive ways of the company to make a buck off our officers. In addition, I will do my best to keep supervison from trying to look good for their own personal agenda of promotions and pay raises at the officers expense. Supervison should just start doing the right thing when we work OT or come in or start early for them, regardless if we volunteer or are forced .
