NAPE/AFSCME member Marisol Myers, a Staff Care Technician (CNA) at the Western Nebraska Veterans Home (WNVH), recently prevailed in a grievance after she was assigned mandatory overtime (MOT) when she was not on duty for the shift immediately prior to the MOT.
Marisol regularly works from 2pm to 10:30pm. After she was excused from her shift at 10:30, she was told that she was being assigned MOT starting 3.5 hours later. Because Marisol was excused at 10:30 and thus not on duty at the facility prior to the 2am MOT assignment, she was not eligible to be mandated overtime under our contract.
Though she wasn’t eligible, management still forced her to use a bye to avoid the assignment. A bye allows employees to be passed over for a MOT assignment. Employees earn two byes per quarter and can accrue an additional bye for every 40 hours of volunteer overtime that they work.
Marisol often volunteers for overtime and has accrued five byes. She was frustrated that she was forced to use one after being improperly assigned MOT.
“I wanted that bye back because July is still a ways away and I might need it in the future,” she said. “So, I called NAPE and confirmed that I could file a grievance.”
NAPE/AFSCME successfully argued that WNVH violated our union contract by requiring Marisol to use a bye even though she was not eligible for the MOT assignment. As a result, WNVH restored the bye that Marisol was wrongfully required to use.
Marisol joined our union at her New Employee Orientation two years ago.
“I don’t regret it for a second,” she said. “I sincerely think it’s important to be a part of our union. I feel like our supervisors sometimes mislead us and that’s why it’s good to be a part of it.”
If you have questions about how MOT is assigned or if you believe you’ve been improperly assigned it, contact us or a union steward right away.