Update 8/31/17: A&R has filed a grievance relating to the State’s intention of charging 24hrs of furlough time to employees who leave State service prior to the designated furlough days. A&R members who are retiring are routinely being told to take the furloughs now b/c the cost of the furloughs will be applied against their final payout regardless. While many other unions used language that states: “Every member must take 3 furlough days between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018”, A&R did not use that language or anything similar. As such, A&R does not believe that our contract language allows the State to charge any furlough time to employees for the 3 furlough days that have not arrived yet. If there is a change in the State’s policy/approach, we will let you know, otherwise, this will be sorted out through the grievance process.
A&R has 3 designated furlough days: 11/24, 12/26, 12/27. On these days, A&R employees are not expected to report to work. The "cost" of these 3 days will NOT be borne on those days, rather the 24hrs of furlough time will be spread out across the remaining paychecks of FY18. Right now, it appears that this will entail 20 payperiods (roughly 1.2 hrs per paycheck...as an example: at $40/hr, this will be a reduction of $48 in gross pay per paycheck for 20 paychecks).
Because the "cost" is coming out of every paycheck, the actual furlough day is not extremely relevent . So if there is an agency need to have individuals work on any of the listed furlough days, the employee so designated could work on the furlough day and then would have the ability to select a different day to count as their furlough (any day prior to July 1, 2018). In a situation of agency need, seniority would dictate who has right of refusal to either work the furlough day (and take a different day as their furlough day) or to take the Union scheduled furlough day.
There is apparently some confusion related to soon-to-be-retirees. The furloughs may be proportionally charged: September retirees are charged 1/6 of the cost, or 4hrs. October retirees are charged 1/4 of the cost, or 6hrs. September and October retirees should not be held accountable for 24hrs of furlough time. It appears that some HR departments are instructing A&R employees to take the furlough days prior to retirement b/c the full 24hrs will be captured in their final payout anyway...this is NOT the case for A&R. A&R has 3 furlough days between Thanksgiving and New Year's, there is nothing that allows the furlough days to be unilaterally moved by the State (other than agency operating need) nor should there be any expectation that employees will be charged for the 3 established furlough days before those days have arrived on the calendar, the pro rata language does allow for a proportion to be charged, but the full 3 days cannot be charged until the 3 scheduled days have passed.
For soon-to-be retirees, if the full 24hrs of furloughs are captured in the final payout, notify A&R and this will be contested in the grievance process.
Further, it has been noted that there are a couple of unions that will not be taking furlough days. This is because some unions create overtime if an employee is out on a furlough day (furloughs are in place to save the State money, not generate overtime expenses). A&R did seek to exchange sick time for furloughs but was not granted that request as A&R employees rarely create OT on furlough days. The unions where OT is generated on furlough days will have their sick time charged as furlough time and other benefits were forfieted as well.