Coronavirus and Work

The Leadership in the Northwest Oregon District has been meeting regularly to discuss and plan for situations arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Local 1911 executive board has been participating in these meetings. In response to COVID-19, Local 1911 will be working with management on your behalf to field your questions and concerns, facilitate answers, and disseminate information as quickly as possible. As always talk to your local E-board or steward anytime.

The guide for employees on leave and telecommuting put out from OPM is guiding the response from managers (see resources page). Read this to better prepare you for the conversation you need to have with your supervisor. The situation with COVID-19 is evolving quickly, there are many questions that remain to be answered. Below are a few questions that we have gotten from conversations with bargaining members and the answers from management at this time. Also, be sure to visit the resources page additional information...

Can I work from home?

• Yes, with a telework agreement
• Telework: Personnel Bulletin 19-02
• **Telework regulations have been relaxed to allow employees to work while their children are home

Can I use sick leave?

• If you are sick, yes. If you are worried about the disease, no.
• If you are caretaking for a family member you get to use family medical leave

Doesn’t the weather policy cover this?

• The contract has no provisions on telework or pandemics. We have an agreement with the District that covers telework during weather events. The agreement is we will keep the policy in place as written in the contract with an allowance for people to telework if they want to.

I have kids that will be out for two weeks, now what?

• Work with your supervisor. If you are having trouble with your supervisor about how to balance your work/life responsibilities , talk to a steward or e-board member. There is no cookie cutter answer to this, but the union is there to help convince a manager to do right by their employee.

What if I want to use LWOP rather than run out my Annual and Sick Leave?

• In response to COVID-19, there is additional flexibility for using LWOP in lieu of Annual and sick leave
• The accumulation of nonpay status hours during a leave year can affect the accrual of annual leave and sick leave. (See 5 CFR 630.208(a).) For example, when a full-time employee with an 80-hour biweekly tour of duty accumulates a total of 80 hours of nonpay status from the beginning of the leave year (either in one pay period, or over the course of several pay periods), the employee will not earn annual and sick leave in the pay period in which that 80-hour accumulation is reached. If the employee again accumulates 80 hours of nonpay status, he or she will again not earn leave in the pay period in which that new 80-hour total is reached. (This means that a full-time employee who is in the 6-hour annual leave accrual category and who has accumulated 80 hours of nonpay status in the last pay period of the year will forfeit 10 hours of leave accrual in that pay period.) At the end of the leave year, any accumulation of nonpay status hours of less than 80 hours is zeroed out so that the accumulation for the next leave year starts at zero. For part-time employees, leave accrual is prorated based on hours in a pay status in each pay period; thus, time in nonpay status reduces leave accrual in each pay period containing such time (5 CFR 630.303 and 5 U.S.C. 6307).

Local 1911 is continuing to work on the important questions and concerns from members. Below are some of the questions we are currently fielding:

• What if I’m quarantined, what would I charge that to and what proof would I need?
• With telework strongly suggested what about those with children under 14? Schools are closed, and in some locations a few large daycare locations are closed as well, no daycare available…
• Pandemic = the secretary may direct telework. In that scenario, what if there is no meaningful work for employees? What about PII info? How often would you be allowed access to the office if you needed documents or needed to upload files to your hard drive?

As ever, reach out to your union contact with questions and about support. During the furlough, the outreach from members to provide support for other members having difficulty was heartening to see. We are again in a situation that calls on us to work together and help each other. This is the bedrock of the union and we are proud to work with you.

In Solidarity,

Local 1911