School district, union solve holiday argument

MAT-SU -- A plea of unfairness from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District Certified Employees Association President Ron Rucker has resulted in a fast-paced compromise between CEA and the district.

At the Jan. 7 Mat-Su Borough School Board meeting, Rucker presented an argument that the district's decision to close schools to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day was going to adversely affect nearly 90 percent of CEA's members. Less than a week later, the district and CEA signed a memorandum of agreement negotiated to better serve the district's certified employees.

"They've (the district) made an effort to negotiate," said Rucker. "It's not the best for all members, but it is the best we could put together in the time we had to put it together."

Rucker's complaint was that with the unplanned day off, not included in the contract that the employees are currently under, employees that work 12 months out of the year would actually lose a day of pay. Even with the district's offer to allow the term employees to take a floating holiday or annual leave day, employees may have been planning on those days for another part of the year, and "forcing" them to use their leave or have an unpaid day of leave was unfair.

"If they [employees] don't get to work, they don't get paid," Rucker said.

Rucker also brought up that because the decision to make the day a holiday was made after this year's contract was signed, the district may actually be breaking the law by forcing the holiday without negotiation.

What happened next was a whirlwind of negotiations between CEA and the district, which ended Tuesday afternoon with an agreement that CEA felt was much more acceptable. This type of negotiations, Rucker said, is what he hopes will continue as the groups look at upcoming contract negotiations. Rucker said that this was the first time in his tenure as CEA president that he really believed the district was making an effort to work with the certified employees.

Chief School Administrator Bob Doyle said that Rucker brought up a valid point at the board meeting, and that the district is always willing to work with CEA.

"We wanted to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. and the diversity in this country," said Doyle. "We didn't want to penalize anyone."

The one-year agreement does not set a precedent for how Martin Luther King Jr. Day, this year on Jan. 19, will be handled in future contracts.

Under the MOA, 12-month employees will either report to work on the 19th, or will use annual leave, a floating holiday or leave without pay, with prior approval. Certified employees that work less than 12 months a year will not report to work, and will not be compensated unless prior approval for use of an annual leave day, which will count as one of the employees contract days. This is done so that an employee does not receive an extra contract day.

While CEA's board was split on deciding whether or not to accept the district's offer, causing Rucker himself to vote, Rucker says that even if it had turned out that CEA chose not to accept the offer, he would still be happy at the willingness of both the district and CEA to at least try to negotiate a compromise.

"I guess I have somewhat of a more positive feeling for the district today than before because of what happened," said Rucker.

Doyle is also pleased with the outcome.

"I was encouraged by the opportunity to work toward a solution that serves everyone, mostly employees, and look forward to continuing to word on problems before they become issues," he said.