Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz announced today a new temporary shift and work location flexibility policy negotiated with CSEA Local 815 that will provide select county employees represented by CSEA Local 1815 options to work an alternative work schedule and location during the COVID-19 global pandemic. This agreement has been entered into to help our employees who have children in school and have childcare issues due to the virtual learning protocols being employed by many school districts.

“Much like previous contract negotiations, we embraced the concept of having an open dialogue that resulted in what we believe in an agreement that respects labor and meets the many unique situations that our workforce faces during these unprecedented times,” said Poloncarz. “I thank CSEA Local 814 President Denise Szymura, Commissioner of Labor Relations Gary Wilson, Commissioner of Personnel Timothy Hogues and their representatives for reaching a mutually beneficial agreement that provides employees who truly need it shift flexibility and the ability to work from home.”

The temporary shift and work location flexibility policy will be in effect until Dec. 31, 2020, with the potential for extension beyond that date. The minimum standards for the policy will be monitored by the Department of Personnel, with individual county departments possessing the ability to establish more stringent requirements to meet their specific needs.

Highlights of the agreement include:

• Understanding that the functionality of each county department must not be sacrificed to allow employees shift flexibility or the ability to work from home.

• All employee requests to work from home or change shifts are subject to approval by the department.

• Recognition of some employees not being eligible to work from home or utilize an alternative scheduled due to the nature of their duties, meaning department heads and supervisors will not be able to approve work from home requests by employees not capable of doing their work at home.

• No use of “unutilized time,” meaning any employee who cannot work at home or does have work to be completed at home must report to the work site.

• All requests by employees to work from home or utilize an alternate work schedule must complete and sign a newly designed shift and work location flexibility request form.

• Supervisors possess the ability to revoke an employee’s shift and work location flexibility agreement if it is determined the employee is needed on-site or if they are not performing satisfactorily at home.

• Commissioners of both the Personnel and Labor Relations departments will have the ability to revoke an individual employee’s or an entire county department’s shift and work location flexibility rights.