NAPE/AFSCME Member Julie Burkhardt is a Staff Care Technician II (CNA) at the Central Nebraska Veterans’ Home in Kearney. After working at CNVH for over 30 years, Julie is an expert in the policies and procedures for staff at the Veterans’ Home. Since overtime is regularly needed at the facility, our contract grants each employee a quarterly “bye” that allows them to be passed over for a mandatory overtime assignment.
On October 1, employees were due to receive their bye for the quarter, but Julie did not receive hers on this day. After asking around, Julie realized that no employees had been given their byes. Julie pointed this out to management, who assured staff that they would hand them out as soon as possible. Days and then weeks passed without byes being distributed. Meanwhile, staff were not given the byes they were contractually entitled to, depriving them of their ability to be passed over for overtime if they really needed to.
After a few weeks passed with no action, Julie reached out to NAPE/AFSCME, and a grievance was filed. This was done not only to prompt management to finally distribute the byes, but to alert agency leadership of this issue that should have been easily handled at the facility level.
After NDVA HR looked into the issue, they distributed the byes immediately and established procedures to ensure that byes are promptly delivered to staff going forward. If our contract is ever not being followed at your worksite, be sure to reach out to NAPE/AFSCME right away for assistance.