This July, the Metro West DMV planned to install a new driver’s licensing system over a weekend. During the workday on the Friday before the installation was planned, DMV supervisors offered one employee the opportunity to help with the installation and work overtime hours.
Our NAPE contract provides a negotiated process that must be followed when state agencies assign employees to work overtime. The contract requires that agencies must first offer overtime to all qualified employees, and assign the overtime in seniority order if there are multiple volunteers. The DMV did not follow this process. Instead, it unilaterally offered the overtime to an employee of their choice.
NAPE member Judy Stieren and other DMV employees would have volunteered for the overtime if it had been offered via the contractually negotiated process, but never got the chance to do so. Judy reached out to DMV supervisors to ask why the overtime was not offered to everyone. She was told that it was a last minute decision and there was no time to offer it to all employees, even though it was offered and accepted during the workday when all other DMV examiners were present.
Judy reached out to NAPE, and a grievance was soon filed with the help of our field staff, arguing that the DMV did not follow the contractual overtime procedures. A Hearing Officer found that the DMV violated the contract by not offering the overtime to all employees, and ordered that they must follow all overtime provisions in the future.
If you believe our contract is being violated at your worksite, be sure to reach out to a NAPE steward or contact our office right away. We are able to enforce our contract and hold management accountable for violations through the grievance process.