UPE met and conferred with Court Management on May 7, 2024, at UPE’s request to discuss ways to improve access to vacation for Child Custody Recommending Counselors (CCRCs). The current vacation policy only allows two CCRCs off at a time. In some cases, this limitation may prevent someone from getting a day off during an otherwise approved long vacation. UPE proposed to increase the number of CCRCs allowed off at one time to three. The Court rejected this proposal, citing staffing and workload concerns. The parties exchanged proposals and settled on a compromise to allow CCRCs to request two additional telework days per year. Their normally scheduled mediations for that day would be made up on other days that month. CCRCs would be subject to the same rules as their normal telework days.
Most importantly, this means that if a CCRC receives a subpoena for their flexible telework day, the Court expects the CCRC to appear. The new days would become available on June 1, 2024, and must be requested before the calendar is issued for the month being requested. In addition, requests cannot be made more than 180 days in advance. CCRCs may request flexible telecommute days using the current telework request form.
UPE hopes this agreement will allow CCRCs more flexibility to attend personal business and important vacations. UPE thanks the members for speaking up regarding an issue that was important to them. This gave UPE the ammunition it needed to push the Court to make a positive change for our members.
UPE thanks Board Member Leava Ong and CCRC Nora Williams for their participation in this meeting.