Holidays Often Mean Vacation Time. The winter holidays are in full swing, and while this year is undoubtedly different than others, this time of year often brings questions about vacation, including whether a Department could deny an employee vacation time, while granting it to someone else; or how quickly vacation requests need to be approved. CCR 599.742.1 explains that “it is the employee’s responsibility to plan vacations well in advance to minimize conflicts with the operational needs of the agency. It is the appointing power’s responsibility to provide reasonable opportunity for all employees to take an annual vacation commensurate with their annual accrual rate of vacation or annual leave.”
When making vacation requests, a good rule to follow is to request the time as early as possible to avoid possible conflicts. For State Scientists reassigned to contact tracing, the same rules should apply. Vacation requests may be affected by the needs of the contact tracing program as well as possible conflicts within the program – it is still a good rule to make vacation requests early. If you encounter issues getting your vacation requests approved, contact CAPS (caps@capsscientists.org).
Recruit a new member, get $50! CAPS offers a $50 incentive for recruiting new members, whether they are Rank-and-File, Supervisory, or Managerial State Scientists. The online membership application form can be located on the CAPS website at http://capsscientists.org/application. It only takes a few minutes to sign up. Make sure the applicant fills in the “referred by” field to receive your incentive!
Know Your Rights: Weingarten Rights. State Scientists (and all state employees) have the right to request a union representative to attend a meeting they reasonably believe will result in disciplinary action. These rights are called “Weingarten Rights” which are derived from a 1975 Supreme Court Case (NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc.). These rights apply in investigatory interviews and meetings where the employee has a reasonable belief that formal discipline may result. State Scientists may request union representation before, or during, such an interview. When representation is requested, the supervisor must do one of three things: grant the request and delay questioning until the representative arrives; deny the request and end the interview immediately; or offer the option of having the interview without representation. The last option is essentially voluntarily giving up one’s rights to union representation, and not usually recommended by CAPS. If your supervisor denies the request for union representation and continues the interview, you have the legal right to refuse to answer questions, but this option must be exercised tactfully.
Don’t just walk out of the interview. Instead, respond that you’d rather answer questions with your union representative present. If you are pressured into answering (such as being threatened with insubordination for failure to answer), the information gathered at the meeting may be excluded in any subsequent disciplinary action. A helpful tool to help you figure out when a meeting is “disciplinary,” and therefore subject to Weingarten Rights is this – if the meeting is held and you are being questioned about things that happened in the past, the meeting is likely disciplinary; if it’s to discuss how to handle things in the future, it’s most likely not. If you enact your Weingarten Rights, contact CAPS as soon as possible (caps@capsscientists.org).
CAPSule on the Web. The November issue of the CAPSule is now posted on the CAPS website. Access it here.
News Briefs.
Well water throughout California contaminated with ‘forever chemicals’ – CalMatters. In the weeks before the coronavirus began tearing through California, the city of Commerce made an expensive decision: It shut down part of its water supply. Like nearly 150 other public water systems in California, the small city on the outskirts of Los Angeles had detected “forever chemicals” in its well water. The discovery forced Commerce to choose between two bad options: keep serving the contaminated water, or shut the well down and import water at more than double the cost. Across California, water providers are discovering the same thing: These chemicals are everywhere. They last forever because they don’t break down. They’re dangerous. They’re expensive to get rid of. And many Californians don’t even know they’re drinking them.
State, federal partnership aims to enhance food safety – Perishable News. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has launched a multi-year project to study the ecology of human pathogens in the environment that may cause foodborne illness outbreaks. This initiative will partner with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), the University of California, Davis, Western Center for Food Safety (WCFS), and agricultural stakeholders in the Central Coast of California. The study follows a series of E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks in recent years linked to California’s lettuce production regions, including three outbreaks in the fall of 2019 which collectively resulted in 188 people falling ill.
California Horse Confirmed With WNV – The Horse. On Nov. 13, officials at the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) confirmed a horse in Sacramento County with West Nile virus (WNV). The affected horse, an undervaccinated yearling Thoroughbred colt, began showing clinical signs on Nov. 3. Signs consisted of ataxia (loss of control of bodily movements) and hind-limb neurologic signs. The colt is recovering. According to CDFA, this is California’s 19th confirmed equine case of WNV in 2020
In Review. Check out what you may have missed from past CAPS Updates here:
November 17, 2020. Staff Quarterly Report Posted. The Quarter 3 Report detailing representation items of interest is now posted on the Members-Only Section of the CAPS Website here: https://capsscientists.org/members/. The password is Fall2020 – it IS case-sensitive.
Read the rest of the entries, or see what else you may have missed on the CAPS Website here: https://capsscientists.org/supervisors/. The password is S10CAPS – it IS case-sensitive.
Choose Unity. Choose Strength. Choose CAPS!