3/13/25 Weekly Email
Hi all,
I have a few new updates and reminders this week.
Member Meeting: Our next member meeting will be next Thursday, March 20th, at 5:30AM in the Tempe Municipal Operations Center (TMOC) building’s first floor conference room. Please rsvp here by Tuesday, March 18th, if you wish to attend - make sure you also inform your supervisors at least 48 hours in advance.
Heat Stress Refreshers: We’ve had some nice weather for the past 2 weeks but it looks like winter is over and we’re slowly moving back to summer temperatures. You may already take a heat stress course as part of your normal job, but I wanted to pass along some resources from the Safety team if that’s not the case. Overheating can cause long-term health ramifications, including reduced tolerance to heat for the rest of your life - since we essentially live in an oven half the year, I figured it may be helpful to review proper protection and treatment guidelines.
Union Release Time Survey: Our survey on union release time is still open and we’re still looking for feedback. If you need a reminder of why we’re looking for feedback, here’s a copy of last week’s email. The survey takes about 5 minutes to complete and you can see the results immediately after finishing. I am putting together a followup email with additional information about the process and answers to some questions members had - expect that early next week
St Patrick’s Day: Saint Patrick’s Day is next week. Just as a gentle reminder from your Union President, please do not harass or pinch your coworkers if they’re not wearing green. I don’t have a lot of fun historical details specifically about the holiday that are relevant to labor history, but Irish immigrants played a key role in labor history. Mary “Mother” Jones, for instance (who I mentioned in last week’s email), was an Irish immigrant dubbed the “most dangerous woman in America” for her organizing skills. If you want to know more about famous Irish organizers you can check out these links.
Rosa Questions Followup: Rosa Inchausti was at our February member’s meeting and answered a number of questions from staff. We were unable to get through the whole list of questions - here are her responses for those we did not get through on that day. The question is bolded and her responses are in italics. If you want to see her original questions and answers, check out this email.
Is there any incentive for employees who work in Tempe to live in Tempe? Are there any efforts to make this process cheaper?
While I would love nothing more than to provide incentives for employees to reside in Tempe, the reality is that Tempe is landlocked, with most of our property built out. The fact is, due to being landlocked, property is expensive in Tempe. We, as a municipality, don’t own any land that can be turned into incentivized employee housing.
Why does the City encourage physical wellness but is also closing employee fitness centers?
According to our workers’ compensation attorney, the city is liable for any injuries arising from the use of employer workout facilities and equipment . Requiring the employee to sign a waiver of liability does not eliminate the liability for the city as long as the use of the facility and equipment is approved by the city and for the benefit of the city such as the case of wellness. Lisette Camacho is working with Financial Services to review city facilities that have workout rooms, including those that are open to the public. They are working on a solution that could provide access to all employees while mitigating the risk for the city. The analysis is expected to be completed by the end of the fiscal year.
Can you explain a little more about the reasons for the 9x80 schedule change and how it will impact employees moving forward?
In order to comply with FLSA regulations, the work week was previously adjusted to accommodate employees requesting a 9/80 schedule. This accommodation proved to be an administrative burden to the City and the Financial Services staff tasked with preparing payroll for a large organization. As a result, City management decided to discontinue the practice of having an irregular work week for those non-exempt employees to alleviate this administrative burden. Accordingly, going forward, non-exempt employees will no longer be offered the accommodation of a 9/80 schedule.
What are some Tempe employee benefits/perks that you wish more people knew about or took advantage of?
For employees on the City’s health plan, Optavise can assist with the following: explaining how benefits work, resolving claims and billing issues, referrals and prior authorization, finding a doctor, and comparing prices for tests, procedures or prescriptions.
For the price comparison, employees can share in the cost savings with the City should they choose a lower cost provider. This can be used for routine procedures like mammograms and colonoscopies or for surgeries. Even if the employee doesn’t pay anything out of pocket, they can still receive money back of 20% of the savings up to $500.
The Employee Assistance Program is for all regular, benefitted employees. In addition to providing in the moment support and short term counseling of up to 8 sessions, they also provide financial expertise, legal consultation, and referrals for child and elder care, home repair, housing needs, education, and pet care.
The original Segal market study's proposed deadline for delivering information was January of 2025 - why are we still waiting?
A classification and compensation project generally takes 18 to 24 months to complete. The City had a very aggressive timeline so we could implement on July 1, 2025. The November presentation given to employees, as well as the presentation given to the impacted employee groups in January both showed that the first half of ’25 would be recommendations development, final report, and planning for implementation. There’s been information shared with the project team, Directors, and the City Manager’s Office, and HR has provided feedback to Segal. The employees will be receiving a final presentation in March with the plan of sharing individual impacts in later April/early May. We are still on track to implement on July 1st.
Rosa has always been very open to communicating with City staff - if you have additional questions feel free to send them to her directly. If you feel uncomfortable I’m also fine with serving as a middle-man and sending them over anonymously.
Thanks for a great week, everyone!