04/19/08 5:36pm
PACE Union Official's Notified of RIF's and Layoffs
City of Atlanta's Department of Human Resource (DHR) office notified PACE Union official's concerning the city's Reduction in Force (RIF) and Layoff's action plans. A meeting with Top Union Official's and DHR is scheduled on Monday April 21, 2008 to obtain pertinent information. Union official's will share the results of the meeting with Union Members on April 29th at the PACE Union General Assembly at Atlanta's City Hall.
Union President Gina Pagnotta contacted DHR Manager David Jones to ask important questions pertaining to the RIF's and Layoff's, to provide Union Members with answers to questions they may have. A List of the questions and answers are listed below:
PACE MEETING CONFER
W/ David Jones
AGENDA
Questions:
Budget Cuts
¨ Severance Packages ==============Will employees received them?
¨ Bumping Rights ==================Will employees be able to?
¨ Transitioning into other positions ======Can employees perform this?
¨ Re-employment Rights/Length of Time===Will this be apart of RIF
¨ How is the Layoff's Decided for each====Department and Who?
¨ Early Retirement Packages===========Will the City offers this?
¨ Reapplying for Positions? =========== What time line will there be?
¨ Contracting Positions? =============Will these continue?
David Jones of the DHR answered the following question on the Emails as follows:
Budget Cuts
- Severance Packages
Answer: None. Typically, employees are allowed to remain on the payroll but not required to come to work during their final two weeks of employment.
- Bumping Rights
Answer: None. The RIF procedure as outlined in Code Section 114-379 requires that length of service and performance evaluation are the only two elements that comprise retention points.
- Transitioning into other positions
Answer: In accordance with the above referenced Code Section, employees will be placed in vacant positions for which they qualify at or below their current pay grade.
- Re-employment Rights/Length of Time
Answer: The relevant Code Section provides two-years of priority reemployment rights for affected workers.
- How is the Layoff Decided for each Department and Who?
Answer: The department head is responsible for identifying classifications subject to the reduction in force, and how many employees will be affected in each classification. DHR identifies the specific employees to be RIFed based on retention points.
- Early Retirement Packages
Answer: As indicated to you earlier, the age penalty will not apply to employees subject to the RIF who elect to take retirement. However, there will be no "early out" offered to all employees.
Electrical/Plumbing/HAVC Inspectors
- Reapplying for Positions?
Answer: I am not intimately familiar with the reorganization that is occurring in the Bureau of Buildings. My understanding was that training was being provided to current inspectors to enable them to obtain necessary certifications in other areas. The departmental goal is to have employees cross-trained so that they may fully inspect all systems at one time, thereby saving the city time and money.
Parking Meter Enforcement Officers
- Contracting Positions?
Answer Departments have not yet advised DHR of specifics relating to personnel actions for the upcoming budget, to include which classes are subject to a RIF.
No further details concerning the RIF's/Layoff's
have been obtained by PACE other than the answers provided by David Jones of
DHR. PACE is in the process of sending out Urgent Mail Correspondence to it's
members with the types of assistance PACE will generate to help members, once
an official date is obtain for the RIF's and Layoff to take place.
Stay tuned to the PACEAtlanta Union website to obtain updates on the Cities actions.