A grievance is a dispute between the parties over and including the application, meaning or interpretation of this Contract.
It is the mutual desire of the City and the Union/Bargaining Agent to provide for the adjustment of grievances in a fair and reasonable manner, with a minimum amount of interruption of the work schedule. Whereas grievance and payments shall be made the first pay period following the settlement, unless otherwise negotiated as part of the settlement the award should specify the amount to be paid to the individual(s). An award may be made in compensatory time at the employee's discretion, if so specified in the grievance. Every reasonable effort shall be made by both the City and the Union/Bargaining Agent to effect the resolution of grievances at the earliest step possible. In furtherance of this objective, this procedure shall be followed:
FIRST STEP:
A) It shall be the duty of both sides to strive to settle all grievances in the first step. When an employee has a grievance, the employee along with the Employee Representative shall verbally attempt to resolve the problem. The grievance must be brought to the attention of the employee's immediate supervisor within five (5) workdays of the employee having gained knowledge that a grievance exists. Such knowledge will be presumed to exist at the time of the alleged contract violation, unless the employee with reasonable diligence could not have discovered the alleged infraction. The Employee Representative and the employee shall meet and discuss the grievance verbally with the employee's immediate supervisor, and shall try to verbally resolve the grievance satisfactorily to both sides. If the grievance can be resolved at this point, then the supervisor and the Employee Representative shall reduce the grievance and the answer to writing and the Employee Representative, the employee, and the supervisor shall sign the grievance report.
B) In the event that the grievance is not settled then the Employee Representative shall reduce the grievance to writing within five (5) work days and present it to the Division Head, Executive Director, or Agency Head. The Division Head, Executive Director, or Agency Head, or the designee thereof, may at her/his option conduct a hearing on the grievance. If so, the hearing will be scheduled within five (5) workdays with a written decision by the Division Head, Executive Director, or Agency Head, or the designee thereof required in five (5) workdays following the day of the hearing. If no hearing is set, a written decision shall be issued within five (5) workdays of the submission at the First Step.
If the written response of the Division Head, Executive Director, or Agency Head, or the designee thereof does not settle the grievance, then the grievance containing the response of the Division Head, Executive Director, Agency Head, or the designee thereof, shall be delivered to the Union/Bargaining Agent for further handling.
Grievances originally filed at the Division Head, Executive Director, or Agency Head level, or at the Step 2 level must also be filed within ten (10) workdays as set forth above.
SECOND STEP:
C) If the grievance is appealed to the Second Step, then it must be delivered to the Department of Human Resources within ten (10) workdays after the written answer was presented to the Union/Bargaining Agent in this step of the Procedure. If the Department of Human Resources desires to conduct a pre-hearing settlement conference with the Union before the Second Step hearing is held, same shall be scheduled at a mutually agreeable time in advance of the scheduled hearing date.
The Union/Bargaining Agent and the Employer and/or persons designated by them shall hold a meeting at a mutually agreeable time within twenty (20) workdays after the grievance has been referred to them for the purpose of attempting to resolve the matter. Within five (5) workdays after such meeting is held, the City shall advise the Union/Bargaining Agent as to the decision of the Employer on the matter. In the event that the grievance is still not satisfactorily settled, then the Union/Bargaining Agent shall have the right to appeal the grievance to the next step.
THIRD STEP - MEDIATION:
D) With mutual agreement, mediation may be utilized by the parties when Step Two of the grievance process does not produce a mutually acceptable resolution. Either party may request to mediate by providing a written request to the other party within fifteen (15) workdays of the Step Two answer. If the City and the Union mutually agree to mediate, the time lines for filing a request for arbitration will be suspended subject to the mediation procedure. A party refusing mediation must give written notice of refusal to the other party within ten (10) work days of the receipt of the request to mediate. If mediation is refused, applicable time limits for appealing a grievance to arbitration shall commence on the day the refusal notice is received.
The parties agree to use the services of a mutually agreed upon mediation service such as the Federal Mediation Conciliation Service (FMCS). Notices of mediation requests are to be signed by both parties and forwarded to the mediator by the moving party. Should the availability of a mediator unnecessarily delay the processing of a grievance, in the opinion of either party, then either party may withdraw its consent to mediation by notifying the other party in writing. The grievance may then proceed to arbitration.
The Union may be represented at the mediation by the President, Chief Steward or a steward designated by the President, the grievant and a representative of AFSCME Ohio Council 8. The city may be represented by an equal number of representatives. Each party shall have one principal spokesperson at the mediation conference, who shall have the authority to resolve the grievance.
Any material that is presented to the mediator shall be returned to the party presenting that material at the termination of the mediation conference with the stipulation that the mediator may receive a copy solely for the purpose of statistical analysis.
Proceedings before the mediator shall be informal in nature. The presentation of evidence is not limited to that presented at the grievance proceedings, the rules of evidence will not apply and no record of the mediation conference shall be made.
The mediator will have the authority to meet separately with any person or persons, but will not have the authority to compel the resolution of the grievance.
If no settlement is reached during the mediation conference, the mediator shall provide the parties with an immediate oral advisory opinion unless both parties agree that no opinion shall be provided. The mediator shall state the grounds for their advisory opinion. The advisory opinion of the mediator, if accepted by the parties, shall not constitute precedent, unless the parties otherwise agree. If either party requests, the settlement will be reduced to writing and signed by the parties.
If no settlement is reached at mediation, the parties are free to arbitrate. If the parties do not accept the advisory opinion, the union may appeal the grievance to arbitration. All applicable time limits for appealing a grievance to arbitration in this collective bargaining agreement shall commence on the day the advisory opinion is issued.
In the event that a grievance that has been mediated subsequently goes to arbitration, no person serving as a mediator may serve as the arbitrator. Nothing said or done by the mediator may be referred to at the arbitration.
The parties agree that the mediator may conduct more than one (1) mediation conference in a day.
Any fees or expenses associated with the mediation conference shall be shared equally by the parties.
FOURTH STEP - ARBITRATION:
E) If it is the decision of the Union/Bargaining Agent to submit the grievance to arbitration, then the Union/Bargaining Agent shall so notify the City in writing within ten (10) workdays after the answer to a previous step has been received.
(1) EXPEDITED ARBITRATION: The City and the Union/Bargaining Agent agree to maintain a list of seven (7) arbitrators who shall serve on a rotating basis to hear the cases which the parties mutually agree to submit to expedited arbitration during the term of this Agreement. All arbitrators on this panel shall be mutually selected from a listing requested from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The arbitrator shall schedule a hearing date within thirty (30) calendar days of the submission to arbitration and shall render a decision within thirty (30) calendar days of the conclusion of the hearing.
(2) FULL ARBITRATION: The City and the Union/ Bargaining Agent also agree to maintain a list of seven (7) arbitrators who shall serve on a rotating basis to hear the cases which the parties mutually agree to submit to full arbitration during the term of this agreement. Cases submitted to full arbitration shall be heard by an arbitrator selected from a panel of arbitrators requested from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. If a panel is requested, the arbitrator shall be selected by alternate striking of names.
(3) GENERAL PROVISIONS:
(a) The parties shall meet in advance of all scheduled arbitrations to exchange witness lists, documents, and other relevant information, and then to determine the possibilities of settlement.
(b) Arbitrators selected by the parties shall not amend or delete the provisions of this agreement.
(c) The fees and expenses of the arbitrator shall be shared equally. Costs for a court reporter and transcripts shall be shared equally if the arbitrator receives a copy of the transcript. All other expenses for witnesses or otherwise shall be borne by the party incurring the costs. However, any City employee called as a witness by either side will continue to receive their regular rate of pay while attending such hearing, not to exceed the normal eight (8) hours they would have worked.
(d) Only Local 2058 may decide to appeal a dispute to arbitration.
F) The Union shall develop a system of logging, numbering, and transferring grievances.
For the purpose of this section, the term 'days' is defined as Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.