It’s time for another weekly update. Since we are in a state of limbo awaiting the results of the Article 46 solicitation, we will dive into the upcoming bidding process.
As many of you know we will be conducting bidding via the bidATC website. Although this is a pretty big change from years past, the Eboard is confident that it will help move the bidding process along in a timely fashion and prevent us from losing leave slots in the 2020 leave year. In order to use the bidATC website, you will need to establish a sign-in. This is based on your member number. If you don’t know your member number, please reach out to your area rep or another member of the Eboard and we can assist you. Devin has created a short instructional video that will walk you through the bidATC process. The video is at the bottom of the update, if you can’t view it in your email client, you may need to click through to the website.
As far as a breakdown on the annual leave MOU, these are a few of the key points and changes from last year.
In round 1 CPCs will have 3 slots per day, Devs and CPC-ITs will have 2 slots per day and TMU will have 1 slot per day.
At the conclusion of round 1 the Area Reps and OMs will collaborate to redistribute (not reduce) the remaining slots throughout the calendar year. Management’s goal here will be to reduce OT costs which, for some areas, means remaining third slots in the summer will likely get moved to other parts of the year. The moral here is bid as much as you can in the summer during round 1 so we can retain as many of those slots as possible.
During the redistribution process, each day will have no less than 2 slots and no more than 4.
There will be 5 total rounds. Round 1 will be 2 consecutive or non-consecutive weeks. Round 2 will be 1 week. Round 3 will be any 5 days. Round 4 will be any 6 days (this is for the 26 day earners and eliminates the need for a round in which they only bid 1 day). Round 5 will be any remaining accrued slots not bid during the previous rounds and may be bid with accrued or accumulated leave.
Once an area has reached their total accrued leave slots, bidding will be complete.
I’m sure there will be many more questions on this, and the Eboard and I are happy to answer them.
We will be conducting briefings beginning next week. They will be conducted similar to the SAFE briefings in that we will do multiple briefings per day with smaller groups. We are hoping to keep briefings down to 15-20 minutes so it does not intrude too much on staffing. We look forward to seeing you there.
I will be traveling during the middle of next week for drug and alcohol training and again the following week for LEAP class. During my absence Amy will be around, but as always, I am available via phone, text or email.
In Solidarity,
Derek Adams