Topic: Letter of The Law / Mandated overtime?

I work at a County facility in PA. We have minimum staffing levels that need to be met daily. Every weds. a union representative counts the roster book for the following week, and begins to call for overtime for that following week, attempting to fill all of the openings for said week

If on weds there are overtimes left for lets say Thursday night shift, and Saturday and Sunday days and middles shifts. That overtime vacancy will be called for on the shift prior to the opening. For the thursday night opening it will be called for on thursday middle shift, and they will also offer any other openings through out the week.

The union keeps a call roster of all officers with their home, and cell numbers. If they take an overtime they are marked as such, if they refuse an overtime they are marked for a refusal. The call list is seniority based with the most senior officer getting “first dids” at their choice of voluntary OT. The call list does not reset, but keeps rolling through the year.

Then we also keep a mandate list for the shifts we were not able to fill voluntarily. At the end of each shift an announcment is made offering any available overtime for the up coming shift. If someone volunteers great, if not they go to the mandate list and mandate the person with the next open block. The mandate list is in order of reverse seniority. Once a person is mandated they get their block marked, and it moves up the list to the top. Once everyone on the list has been mandated it resets. Everyone is eligable to be mandated regardless of seniority.

I know this seems confusing to some, but it works well, and it is a fair system for both volunatary and mandated overtime.

The key is it is the unions responsibility to call and fill the OT, an mantain the call lists.