NAPE/AFSCME member Kathy Lovan is a Staff Care Technician II at the Western Nebraska Veterans Home (WNVH) in Scottsbluff. At 24-hour facilities like WNVH, it’s sometimes necessary for staff to work mandatory overtime. Our labor contract offers employees certain protections when it comes to how mandatory overtime is assigned at 24-hour facilities. One such protection is that employees can’t be forced to return to the facility to work mandatory overtime once they’ve gone home from work. If an employee chooses to return to the facility for voluntary overtime, they are able to do so. The contract simply guarantees that employees won’t be mandated to return to the facility after going home.
One day in October, Kathy was working her regular shift (6am-2:30pm). At the end of the shift, she was told she would need to return to the facility at 6pm in the evening for a mandatory overtime shift. Kathy knew that she couldn’t receive mandatory overtime once she went home, so she called her union representative. Our NAPE/AFSCME field staff confirmed that this was indeed a contract violation and promptly helped Kathy file a grievance.
After a grievance meeting on the matter, NDVA agreed that WNVH had violated the contract. NDVA agreed to re-educate managers on the proper mandatory overtime procedures. Thanks to Kathy, no one will be improperly forced to return to the facility for mandatory overtime. When Kathy believed her overtime assignment violated the contract, she did the right thing by calling her union representative. If you believe your work assignment violates the contract, don’t hesitate to contact NAPE/AFSCME today.