Holding Over for Proper Relief
UFLAC recently became aware that certain Battalion Chiefs were holding members over past 0800, citing that the members were not able to go home until properly relieved. Shortly after learning of this new conduct, UFLAC served a “Cease and Desist” on the Department. Since then, your Executive Board has not been notified of any further holdovers as the conduct appears to have stopped.
Due to this incident, the UFLAC Executive Board wants to remind you of your rights related to proper relief. Specifically, if you are asked to holdover after 0800, you are entitled to at least 12 hours of overtime. This right was confirmed through an arbitration award won by UFLAC involving bargaining unit member FF Richard Casanova. In his ruling, the arbitrator reasoned that the act of involuntary overtime was a policy of last resort and therefore was meant to be costly to the Department. The result was a ruling that if a member is held over for proper relief, the Department is required to pay for at least 12 hours. Accordingly, members are advised that if you are held over for proper relief (not as a result of an incident), you should request to go home at 0800, and if denied, have the denial documented in the F-2 journal and immediately contact UFLAC and file a grievance.
This is the direction that needs to be taken to fairly compensate members for time taken away from their families to serve the citizens of Los Angeles, and this needs to be a reminder that the Department has failed to properly staff and provide the necessary resources, but instead continues to rely on the backs of the members that have already sacrificed so much.
In Solidarity,
UFLAC Executive Board
Published on February 6, 2024
