NEPBA Attorney Tom Horgan prevails in Swap Grievance for Norfolk County Correctional Officers Local 575
As long as can be remembered bargaining unit members have been allowed to swap their regularly assigned shifts with other similarly ranked officers in order to get time off that they might not otherwise be able to take utilize their compensatory time, or personal days. In other words, Officer A would be scheduled to work a shift. Officer A finds another officer, Officer B, to work the shift for him/her on his/her regularly scheduled shift. Officer A promises Officer B to work for him/her on another date. Officer B then works for Officer A at another time and the swap is complete. There is no change in pay for the two officers; Officer A would be paid his or her regular pay even though he or she did not work, and at the later date Officer B would be paid his or her regular pay when Officer A works Officer B’s shift.
Shift swaps or shift trades have been a long-standing practice and have been codified in Article XI Section 6 of the Parties Collective Bargaining Agreement, and also a July 2015 Memorandum of Agreement. There was no dispute that in the past there had been no requirement that the completion of the shift swap, where the Officer works the shift of the officer who initially worked for the Officer, must be done by a specific date or within a specific time period. However, on February 4, 2021, the practice changed when the Employer issued a Memorandum stating that all shift swaps, the initial swap and the return of the swap, had to be completed within the calendar year. The NEPBA filed a grievance arguing that the February 4, 2021, Memorandum violated the Parties’ Collective Bargaining Agreement as well as the past practice.
The arbitrator held that the Employer’s argument that unlimited shift swaps contravene the existing contract language on work schedules was without merit. In addition, the arbitrator held that the fact that there was no language in the Parties’ CBA that set forth when shift changes must be completed, did not give the Employer the carte blanche right to impose a mandatory time period in which swaps must be completed. Further, the arbitrator held that the Employer’s new requirement would limit the opportunity to make shift swaps if they were sought later in the year, since there would not be not adequate time to effectuate the initial swap and then repay the swap. For example, if the swap was sought for December, an Officer would have a very limited time period in which to repay the swap and work the shift for the Officer if it had to be done in thirty days or less. Thus, the benefit of shift swaps had been altered and diminished by the Employer’s February 4, 2021 guidelines.
Based upon all the factors, the arbitrator sustained the grievance in favor of the NEPBA holding that the February 4, 2021 guidelines that require that shift swaps must be completed in a calendar year must be rescinded.