Today, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 1199 reached a tentative agreement with the State of Ohio that would extend the current collective bargaining agreement until 2015.

"Today marks an historic agreement that is both economical and equitable given the current fiscal challenges that Ohio is facing," said Becky Williams, President of SEIU District 1199. "Ohio's public employees are committed to building better communities for everyone and this agreement demonstrates shared sacrifice in the spirit of cooperation."

The employees of the State of Ohio are dedicated to the delivery of quality and efficient public services. We want to work with our fellow citizens, elected officials and managers to save taxpayers money while investing in good jobs and our local communities.

Over the last decade, state employees have worked within their agencies to identify cost savings for taxpayers while improving services for the public. Today's settlement reassures that collective bargaining works in the State of Ohio.

As we move forward, we call upon state leaders to use a balanced approach to the challenges facing our local communities. We need to continue in the spirit of cooperation by creating good jobs that allow Ohioans to support their families. This can be done by reinvesting in our cities and towns while increasing revenue, closing unnecessary tax loopholes and supporting the values of middle-class Ohioans.

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Remaining FY12 balance in 1199 Tuition Reimbursement fund as of 1/19/12 - $160,033.48.

The first Agency Professional Committee meeting between 1199 delegates and DP&CS will be held on February 16, 2012 at the 1199 union hall in Columbus, Ohio. In the meantime, a few important questions related to the canvass and recall process have arisen, and since the facts inherent to the questions are relevant to officers across the state, 1199 requested that the agency provide a written response to them. The questions and answers are reprinted below. While question number 3 is specific to Miami County, the response applies to problems the agency has had recalling officers to vacancies statewide.

1. When new Senior Officer positions are posted statewide, will former senior officers who bumped into regular PO spots have to re-apply for those positions, or as former Seniors, will they simply have the right to canvass into them (even though they're no longer technically Seniors)? Parole Officers who were bumped from Senior positions will not be eligible to canvass to available Senior assignments until they become Senior Parole Officers again through recall or Article 30 hiring.


2. It appears that DAS is taking an inordinately long time to process the personnel actions from the canvass. Is there anything DRC can do to speed up the process? There has been no hold up processing the personnel actions for canvassing. The process itself is time consuming, mostly because we have to post for 10 days and then process the "bids," but DAS is not holding up any personnel actions.


3. Is the Miami County position that wasn't bid on going to be filled through recall? (It sounds as though the position has been sitting vacant for a while, and the members are wondering when recall will begin.) If there is a candidate listed for recall, yes the Miami positions will be filled through recall. It is taking a very long time to receive a recall candidate (1 at a time) back to DRC Personnel from DAS. Once that occurs, Personnel has to exhaust a process of contacting the recall candidate, which includes calling and sending a certified letter. Again, one candidate at a time. This can be a time consuming process. This issue has been addressed with DAS. We were told they are currently processing layoffs for other agencies as well as our own and will send the requested lists as soon as they can. We want to fill these positions as soon as possible.


4. Do you have an update you can give us regarding the agency's budget given the issues from last fall? We have no news on how the economy and the State's budget will impact our operations beyond what was announced in March. DRC continues to monitor the budget and the various reorganization and cost savings initiatives put in place by the agency since March of 2011. This has been and will be a continuous process throughout the biennium. As we have said in previous APC meetings, we can make no promises moving forward about the budget's operational impact on us, but as of right now there are no planned cuts impacting APA operations or staff.

If you have questions or issues that should be discussed at the February APC meeting, please email them to an 1199 APA delegate in your region, or to the 1199 Administrative Organizer, Leah Davis, at ldavis@seiu1199.org.

Innovation Ohio, a nonpartisan think tank, recently developed an interactive map showing an estimate of money each Ohio County has lost due to the Kasich Administration's policies.

"When Gov. Kasich boasts about balancing the state budget without raising taxes, he always forgets to mention that it came at a terrible cost for schools, local governments, and all Ohioans who depend on these services," says Innovation Ohio President, Janetta King.

The map shows the total dollar losses for all 88 counties and is accompanied by a chart breaking down the losses into school cuts, cuts to local government funds, dollars lost through the elimination of the estate tax, and dollars lost through elimination of reimbursements for the tangible personal property tax (TPP).

Click here to access the map here.

Click here to see the chart.

Persons in Attendance:

For 1199:
Amanda Schulte, Chuck Guerrieri, Debbie Nooks-Comeriato, Jeff Buffer, Kay Lauener, Mary Albayati, Ruth Wagner, Amy Hoops

For Management:
Brian Walton, Toni Brokaw, Doug Farmer, Brad Nielsen, Dee Seidenschmidt, Karen Fitzsimmons, Debbie Zebar

1. Review of Last Meeting's Minutes of August 16th, 2011 - Approved

2. Rumor Mill

Employee Meeting/Return to Work

• • The Administrator addressed Return to Work (RTW) as a main focus for the agency at the recent All-hands Employee Meeting.
• • As recommended in the Rehab workgroups, our goal is to reach out to employers and discuss Transitional Work Plans or create new ones for the employers.
• • We need to work with employers to identify more return to work opportunities.
• • DMCs will take on a larger more consultative role.
• • Union feels MCOs have room for improvement in this area
• • We need to hold MCOs accountable.
• • Audits and financial implications will be imposed.
• • Administrator would like to use the DMCs in the most efficient way.
• • Debbie Nooks-Comeriato suggested that we should be proactive instead of using retro audits that don't work.

Initiation of the DUR process and the final division of duties

• • Hearing many rumors that despite the fact that pharmacy now has four of its own nurses. The MCOs are still going to be determining what is going to be an appropriate review.
• • Union questioned what the four intermittent nurses are doing and when will they be working on the DUR backlog.
• • The DUR backlog issue will be discussed further in the near future (2012).
• • Chuck stated that he was told by Tina Kielmeyer intermittent nurses may start on the DURs early.
• • Union would like answers to this issue by the next meeting.
• • Union asked if MCOs will be doing final orders and drug denial orders.
• • Union feels our nurses should be doing referrals.
• • Union asked: Who will the intermittent nurses report to? Who will be training them? What will their work schedule look like? Who will be accountable for their work?
• • The field is responsible for all current back log of DURs. The intermittent nurses will be used to help address the back log. Eventually the new ones will be handled by the nurses in pharmacy.
• • Union said they will work with management on offering overtime to nurses in clearing up the DUR backlog. Chuck said he will train HSQI (formerly ADR) nurses to do DURs, if necessary.
• • Tina has approved blocks of overtime to cover DUR backlog.
• • To assist with the backlog management may permit CAT nurses to work overtime but would like to limit it to CAT nurses who are experienced in DURs.

3. Schedules

• • There was discussion on who is responsible for getting coverage if a DMC wants to leave early on any given day.
• • Since hub nurses do not need to find their own coverage when they want to leave early, DMCs feel that they are being penalized and it is management's role to find coverage for them.
• • Management responded that there is a list on SharePoint and that management feels that the employee should be proactive to find their own backup.
• • No employee has been denied requested leave.
• • Union needs to log how much time they are spending trying to find coverage. Doug Farmer said he will send a link to the backup schedule to SOMs and DMCs again as a resource for everyone.

4. DEP training (from November 3rd) discussion

• • Union was concerned that nurses were not invited to the training given to physicians by attorneys. Nurses are the front line and actually do the work.
• • This was the first of this kind of training in quite some time.
• • We will continue to hold these trainings/meetings on a quarterly basis.
• • The union requested information regarding the how many people attended the training. Karen said she would get that figure.
• • The union raised the issue that in the past that DEP's were required to be accredited and the training was mandatory. This has not been done in 5 years.
• • Union feels the lack of a Medical Director causes problems for the BWC when dealing with DEP docs.
• • Union feels training should be peer to peer presented by medical professionals to medical professionals. They also would like to see psychiatrists and psychologists included in the training.
• • Union believes one significant issue with DEPs is the quality of their reports. We need to provide training to address this.
• • We need to be proactive as an agency and work with providers from the beginning.
• • Providers need training because they have not had to be accountable in the past.
• • Things should improve once performance measures are in place for the providers.

5. Technical Medical Specialist (2) Positions posted in October

• • Union is concerned that the position doesn't require a medical professional (nurse). How can a technical medical specialist do the job without a medical background?
• • Director of Personnel responded that the posting states that a nurse is a preferred qualification for one of the two Technical Medical Specialist (TMS) positions. An applicant could have and undergraduate in pre-medicine and meet the minimum qualifications according to the class spec.
• • The second TMS posting included preferred quals regarding research and writing. The union believes this position sounds like an analyst position.
• • This position will report to Freddie Johnson. This position will write voc rehab, claims and medical policy. SME will review and draft policy.
• • The union commented that the nurses used to write policies.
• • Management commented that bargaining unit employees should not be writing policies. Also, we have always had the TMS positions.
• • The union again expressed concerns regarding the lack of a Medical Director.
• • Management is working to recruit/find a Medical Director. However, the search has been difficult due to the amount of money we can offer. The union suggested that more doctors may be interested in the position if they were able to work from a regional location instead of Columbus.

6. C92 AA & 90 Day Exam responsibilities going to CSS

• • Currently, we have 32 nurses and several nurses are leaving the agency.
• • Union doesn't want nurses duties to move to the CSS.
• • The nurse should have the responsibility.
• • CSSs can't interpret medical. No medical intervention in the claim.
• • Administrator stated that claims are down. However, the union believes tasks are up.
• • They want to make sure the nurse resources are being properly utilized.
• • Nurses believe they are losing an impact on a claim.
• • Three of the nursing hubs are working well.
• • Dayton/Toledo nursing hub is not working efficiently. Process is non-transparent.

7. Follow-up from previous meeting

• • As follow-up from the August 16th 1199 APC meeting, Doug Farmer shared with the union the DMC caseload realignment document prepared by Debi Kroninger. The document was just completed yesterday and sent out to the SOMs.

8. 2012 APC meetings

• • February 7th, alternate day 14th
• • August 14th
• • November 13th

9. Agenda items for next meeting

• • Medical Director
• • Performance Measures for nurses
• • C92 QA process
• • All Hands Connect meeting follow-up
• • Agency Specific for 1199 - Get scheduled usually on Monday or Friday

10. • Meeting adjourned at 2.34 p.m.