AFGE Local 683 representing workers at the Federal Correctional Institution in Sandstone, Minnesota, has just won an arbitration case in which an arbitrator found that the agency violated an agreement with the union when it unilaterally eliminated nine Compressed Work Schedules (CWS) positions from the Custody roster.
In 2001, the local and the agency agreed to 24 CWS posts for correctional officers. Instead of working 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week, CWS allows officers to complete the 80-hour biweekly work requirement in less than 10 days.
Over the years, the parties agreed to add more CWS positions until ultimately reaching 33 CWS posts in 2022. When it was time to do the first quarter of 2023 roster bid, the agency sent out the blank roster for bid minus nine CWS posts without any notice to the union.
The local filed both informal and formal grievances with the agency, but they were quickly rejected. AFGE’s General Counsel Office represented the local at arbitration.
The arbitrator found that the agency violated the master agreement, law, and past practice when it unilaterally terminated the nine CWS posts. He ordered that the nine CWS posts be added back to the Custody roster and be made available for bid.
He also ordered make whole relief for bargaining unit employees who used leave on days they would have normally been off had they had a CWS and for those who lost shift differential pay.
Meanwhile, after the union filed the grievance, the agency tried to get rid of all of the Custody CWS posts at Sandstone. That issue went to the Federal Service Impasses Panel, and the agency lost.
“We're honored that the members trusted this e-board to fight for them when the chips were down,” said AFGE Local 683 President Bill Schoonmaker. “I'm humbled to have gone through both an arbitration and an impasse hearing over this, only to come out of them with better relationships with management than we went in with. It's been a lot of hard work, but in the end, the members of AFGE Local 683 got the decisions they deserved. We on this e-board are just glad we get to serve these members.”
Schoonmaker said the local is now re-implementing the 4th quarter roster from 2022 for their next quarterly bid and is in talks to increase the total number of correctional officer compressed work schedules to 36.
FCI Sandstone is a low-security facility housing about 1,150 inmates. It has 77 correctional officers, although per BOP policy it should have 100.
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