In April, three NAPE members brought forward concerns relating to the assignment of overtime at the Beatrice State Developmental Center (BSDC). At the facility, the agency was inappropriately assigning overtime in two ways. BSDC was not soliciting volunteers before assigning over time, and the management was maintaining two separate overtime rosters. These are both contract violations because the overtime procedures outlined in the NAPE/State of Nebraska Contract require that the agency first asks for volunteers and that they maintain only one overtime roster for the facility for each job classification. Using multiple overtime rosters resulted in certain employees being assigned more mandatory overtime than others.
Even though the agency was violating the overtime assignment procedure negotiated in the NAPE contract, members who refused the improper overtime assignment had hours deducted from their annual FMLA allotment for the time they refused to accept an improper overtime assignment. Grievances were filed on behalf of our NAPE members affected by this situation. With NAPE’s help, our members’ FMLA leave was restored and BSDC is now assigning overtime in accordance with the contract by using one overtime roster per job classification.
If you work at BSDC and have questions about overtime assignments, please contact one of our stewards at the facility Cindy Fruehling, Rich Kerr, Gail Mann, or Aaron Parde. If you work at another 24-hour facility and believe overtime is being improperly assigned, contact us for help right away.