State Senate Republican Leader Louis C. DeLuca (R-Woodbury) announced today that Commissioner Linda Yelmini of the Department of Administrative Services has negotiated a stipulated agreement between five unions at the Southbury Training School so employees may be able to share vacation time with a sick co-worker. Senator DeLuca first approached the Commissioner with the idea for this arrangement when he was informed about the problem of several workers not being allowed to donate vacation time to a sick co-worker that was represented by a different union's bargaining unit.
"The specifics of these collective bargaining agreements are complex and full of restrictions people aren't always aware of, so I am grateful to Commissioner Yelmini and the five unions for finding a way to give these Southbury Training School employees the chance to do a good turn for one of their coworkers," said Senator DeLuca. "You would think it would be a simple matter to allow people to give a sick colleague some vacation time, but the language in these contracts sometimes eliminates the possibility for spontaneous acts of goodwill. I thank the Commissioner and the unions for working together and allowing these very generous employees the chance to give their colleague the time to deal with illness without having to worry about losing paychecks."
State employees are generally represented in bargaining units by occupation, rather than by office - ie: a secretary might be represented by a different unit than a computer technician, even though they may work side by side in the same office. This agreement will allow, in this one case, for the vacation time to be shared between members of different bargaining units. |
