Fellow OCAA members,
The OCAA Board has been talking to the County about amending our MOU to make some changes regarding the way our members with less than three years of service accrue vacation and for our members with large annual leave balances who are in danger of hitting the 480 hour vacation cap before they exhaust their annual leave. We are pleased to announce the county has tentatively agreed to these changes, which will be explained below. As a result the OCAA Board will be presenting these proposed changes during lunch at all the courthouses in the next two weeks and taking a yes or no vote on these proposed changes immediately after the presentations.
First, the proposed changes:
VACATION ACCRUAL FOR MEMBERS WITH LESS THAN THREE YEARS OF SERVICE
Under our current MOU, members with less than three years of service earn approximately three weeks of vacation per year. However, those members receive only a small portion of those vacation hours on each paycheck (.0193 hours of vacation x 80 hours), and then receive 80 hours of vacation when they hit one year of service. These members accrue vacation in this manner until they have been with the county for more than three years.
Under the proposed change, members with less than three years of service will no longer have to wait one year to obtain their full vacation accrual. Instead, these members will accrue all of their earned vacation on each paycheck (which will now be .0577 hours of vacation x 80 hours). The amount of vacation a member with less than three years of service earns will not change (it will still be approximately three weeks of vacation per year). However, the vacation earned will be immediately available on each paycheck.
CASHING OUT VACATION
Under our current MOU, members with more than 750 hours of annual leave are guaranteed to be able to cash out 120 hours of annual leave each fiscal year, and those with less than 750 hours of annual leave are guaranteed to be able to cash out 60 hours of annual leave each fiscal year. This will NOT change under the proposed changes.
However, for those members who have an annual leave balance AND who are in danger of hitting the 480 hour vacation cap during a fiscal year (which would occur if a member has about 280 hours of vacation at some point during the fiscal year), those members will now be guaranteed to be able to cash out 120 hours of vacation during that fiscal year. Cashing out vacation in this manner will prevent those members who still have an annual leave balance from hitting the 480 hour cap on vacation.
The OCAA Board believes these proposed changes are beneficial, especially for our newer members and for our more senior members. We will explain the changes further and answer any questions you may have during the lunchtime presentations at the various courts. As noted, we will also take a vote on these proposed changes following the presentations.
OCAA is in the process of scheduling the presentations at the various courthouses and we expect to have the presentations completed in the next two weeks. We anticipate doing a presentation at Harbor Court, North Court, West Court, Juvenile Court, one at Building 14, and one at the 401 building. We are checking with the departments to make sure there are no conflicts with things like team meetings or mandatory training. Please check our website (ocaa.net) and your email for the presentations schedule.
Once the presentations and voting are completed, the Board of Supervisors will need to vote to approve the changes at an upcoming board meeting. OCAA will keep you informed as things progress. In the meantime, please contact a Board Member if you have any questions or concerns.