Sunday, August 2, 2015

UPATES ON ISSUES


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 .