Agreement on DOC furloughs reached

The Federation’s DOC Supplemental Bargaining Team and the Department of Corrections late today signed a memorandum of understanding to deal with the impacts of the added furloughs from the governor’s 6.3 percent across-the-board cuts.

Under the agreement:

• DOC employees already subject to the 10 furlough days imposed by the Legislature will take an additional eight hours (the equivalent of one day) of furlough time in May 2011.

• All other DOC employees will take eight hours of furlough time each month from December 2010 to June 2011. That’s the equivalent of seven days.

• DOC employees can take their furlough time in increments of no less than four hours at a time.

• Both sides will work to set up a pool of Federation-represented employees willing to take voluntary furlough reductions in hours. DOC and the Federation will meet Dec. 6 to assess if there are enough volunteers to offset the future mandatory furloughs. “The first priority for relief from temporary layoffs will be the bargaining unit members taking an additional temporary layoff day in addition to the temporary layoff required in ESSB 6503 (the furlough law),” the agreement said. The furlough offsets would apply only to DOC employees represented by the Federation.

 The DOC furlough agreement was signed today by Sherri-Ann Burke of the Federation and Todd Dowler of DOC.

Those are the highlights. Read agreement here.