UPE Featured in the Sacramento News & Review!     Read how UPE steps in to advocate for members when they need them the most.   Click here to read more.

Know Your Rights It is imperative that you know your employee rights in order to ensure equal treatment and fairness in the workplace. As a public employee, you have rights that are granted through your union contract, state and federal law, and workplace policies. UPE's staff and member-leaders have fought tirelessly throughout the years to expand and protect these rights. Some of these rights include proper representation during an investigatory meeting pertaining to a disciplinary matter. Your rights to Family Medical Leave Act, American Disabilities Act and sick/vacation leave request/usage. A change of policy that impacts your current working conditions prescribed under the MOU and or government code. All of this matters and we will educate you through this process. To that end, we are developing a series of short, easy-to-read summaries of many of your employment rights. More summaries will be added to this website over the coming months. Always feel free to ask your Steward and or your Business Representative about your employment rights and how they apply to your specific circumstances. In most cases, your employer is not required to inform you of your rights.   CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

2021 UPE Members of the Month!   UPE Recognizes & Appreciates Your Support! 1st Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd Quarter  4th Quarter  OCTOBER: Anna Miller, Elsa Mason, Gretchen Stevenson, Ashley McGuiness, Ashley Fox, Ashna Prasad, Ellen Cehand, Sunday Hicks

Meet and Confer Update Telework DHA January 14, 2022 DHA is beginning to implement a temporary telework plan for select workers in an attempt to limit the total number of employees at Bureaus during the current surge in COVID cases. The Department views these changes as temporary and plans to return workers to their regular schedules sometime in February, pending changes in case rates and advice from public health. Throughout the pandemic, UPE has advocated teleworking for our workers and supports any effort to limit worker exposure in the office. The Department is still developing these plans, and UPE intends to meet with the Department to review the details and continue our advocacy for safer workplaces. At the same time, UPE learned that 28th Street was going forward with a plan to send ASOS and Supervisors home but not the workers they manage. Removing these staff would not make those left in the building safer. These staff already have offices with doors. Sending management staff home while keeping line workers in the building is a slap in the face. These supervisors and managers are being rewarded with safety because they are less critical to the operation of the County than UPE staff. If these supervisors and managers mattered, they would still be in the office. UPE immediately contacted upper management, and the Department rescinded the directive.   If the Department had the forethought and care, everyone would be at home. In March of 2020, UPE proposed that the Department procure the equipment necessary to allow their workers to telework. Eventually, the Department purchased a little over 100 Cradle Point Routers, which would enable workers to conduct business from home over the phone as if they were in their office. These were largely distributed to workers with ADA accommodations. These devices work! UPE has not heard of any issues with worker productivity while teleworking. UPE proposed and continues to propose that additional units be purchased to allow more workers to work from home. We have also proposed that the Department explore other options besides the Cradle Point. The Department refused. Had the Department taken UPE's advice and invested in the infrastructure necessary, they would not be in the position they are today, with over 70 staff testing positive for COVID by January 10th. The Department continues to act as if COVID-19 is gone when it is the worst it has ever been.  Once again, the Department has been caught with their pants down and are now scrambling to do something they could have been working on for years at this point.   Workers have every right to be outraged at the treatment they have received from the County and Department. Workers deserve better. UPE is beginning contract negotiations, and workers must stand ready to demonstrate their anger towards the County when needed.

Meet & Confer Update Changes to APS Age December 15, 2021      On December 15, 2021, UPE and DCFAS met to discuss new legislation that will impact our workers in Adult Protective Services (APS). Currently, existing law defines “elder” as a person who is 65 years of age or older and a “dependent adult” as an adult between 18- and 64-years. Effective January 1, 2022, elderly will be defined as a person who is 60 years of age or older and a “dependent adult” as a person between 18-and-59 years of age, which means more cases for our workers to assess and investigate.       While the law is effective the first of the year, the Department shared they’ve been provided little guidance from the State and no new funding until the next fiscal year. UPE was extremely concerned with this as this change will cause an increase in the workload. The Department will be submitting a growth request for additional workers but could not provide the exact number yet. The Department acknowledged the impact this will have but believes it will be manageable early on. The new law is not widely known yet, and there are no plans to saturate the community with the information. The Month of January tends to be fully staffed as most are returning from vacations. Current caseloads are low, and the busy time tends to be in the summer months. However, the Department will be monitoring the numbers, scrutinizing calls more thoroughly, and will reevaluate if caseloads start to increase. The need for Overtime/CTO will be assessed as well.        UPE and the Department agreed to meet again in March to further assess the impact. Thank you to our members Deanna Green, Dana Lynch, and Patricia Mora, for their advocacy on this matter.

Meet & Confer Update DCFAS Declares Impasse December 6, 2021      Over the last several months, UPE and the Department have met to discuss the Department's intent to return medication disbursement duties to the CPSU Social Workers and Supervisors. In 2019, UPE sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Department to remove said responsibilities from our workers. The Department agreed and has assigned the duty to various other classifications other than UPE Social Workers. However, despite our continued concerns, the Department noticed UPE with the intent to return those duties to UPE.      During the course of negotiations in the last several months, UPE made it clear we believed...   Continue Reading...