Professional Employees Association

The October – December 2020 newsletter is now available.

Contents include:

The Corner by Mike Wilde

2021 Calendar of Events

January 13, 2o21, Stewards and Executive Committee Meeting agenda and information.

The PEA fall general membership meeting will be held October 14, 5:30 – 7:00 p.m..

This will be a virtual meeting, held over Zoom.

To RSVP, please email Justine Roe to let her know you will attend so that she includes you when sending out the meeting link.

The newsletter for 3rd Quarter 2020 is now available.

Contents include: New email address, meetings update, wellness plan reminder, nomination and election notice.

COVID-19 Leave Information

Message from SPPS School District:

As we prepare for the upcoming school year, there are many questions and concerns that you are no doubt hearing from your members. The District is also hearing concerns.  In an effort to understand the needs of our employees as we start the school year I want to provide you with an update on COVID leave requests and concerns. All of the info, forms, FAQs, and contacts for leave due to COVID are on the following links. 

Benefits link:  https://www.spps.org/Page/39055  

ADA link:  https://www.spps.org/Page/39787 

Employees may email benefits@spps.org if there are any questions. We are encouraging our union partners to communicate this information to their members to help in the planning for the start of a new school year. The District is also planning to send out this information through many of its normal communication methods. 

The April – June 2020 newsletter has been posted.

Contents include:

Meeting announcements and “Solidarity Thru Safety”.

Please see information available about employee rights related to the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 Employee Notification Procedures

COVID-19 Scenarios and Benefits Available

Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) Employee Rights

Information about the memorandum of agreement between the City of Saint Paul and various unions is available:

Memorandum of Agreement (on City of Saint Paul website)

Adopted City County resolution for the COVID-19 Memorandum of Agreement

This was sent out via email from Catherine Penkert, Director of Libraries:

Hi all,
Please see the below update that applies to all employees affected by the facility closures:

“The City of Saint Paul understands that there were specific employees in the Department of Parks & Recreation and the Saint Paul Public Library that were sent home due to facility closures based on the risk of COVID-19 on March 18th, 2020. 

It is the decision of the City that for those employees that were working or scheduled to work on the day that facilities were closed, they will receive their normal full pay. For the remaining scheduled days that employees of Parks and Libraries were unable to work while their facilities were closed during Pay Period 8, employees will be paid for their scheduled shifts. 

This decision is applicable only to Parks and Libraries staff who were affected by facility closures during the period of March 18th through March 24th, 2020. This sets no precedent for any possible future facility closures.”

Hello PEA Members,

The Executive Board, our legal counsel and myself are trying to update you on what we know about the effects the pandemic is having on our City, Schools and jobs.  The most accurate update is that things are changing daily and planning is continuous.  

PEA initiated formal contact with the City nearly two weeks ago to demand answers for our members.  The City responded with a voicemail at the end of the day March 12^th stating that they were preparing answers to FAQs. The following day, on Friday the 13^th, PEA sat in on the first conference call with City management where very little information was provided.  Early the next week PEA returned to the City for clarification. In the evening before it occurred, Labor Relations notified PEA in a voicemail that the Park & Recreation department and Libraries would be closing facilities to public and employees.  Nobody had any advanced warning of this.

The following day PEA sat in on a citywide teleconference where the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was discussed (for details of the MOA, refer to PEA’s March 19^th posting on this website). The next day PEA received and reviewed the draft of the MOA, which included 1) 80 hours Emergency Pandemic Leave (EPL), 2) accrual rights during the use of such EPL and 3) extended Earned Safe & Sick Time with an equivalent of six (6) days of negative pay (not yet earned).  Although it was not perfect, PEA’s Executive Board understood that by refusing to sign and stall for more coverage we would jeopardize the short-term benefits described above for all our City members.  The vote to sign the MOA was unanimous.  Every other union in the City also signed the MOA by this morning.

Matters are still being addressed for members in Parks and Libraries.  PEA has requested a “meet and confer” with City Labor Relations and the City agreed.  A date has not yet been established.

Thanks to School members and their patience.  As of now, the Superintendent’s all-school teleconference laid out the Schools intention in the short term to keep the employees working as far as we know.  Please contact PEA stewards if there are any separations from work for a PEA member. The Governor also put in a mandate that every school must have a distance-learning plan, provide food service availability and address daycare concerns.  We will attempt to get more detail for School members in the next posting.

Thank you for your patience and we will continue to provide you updates as things continue to progress. 

Be well and Stay Safe.

Regina Etoll
PEA President 

Hello PEA, 

Andrea Turner expressed in her letter to all City employees today, “Directors are working closely with the office of human resources and the Mayors office to reassign employees to perform needed City services for our residents.” We think this provides an opportunity for our out of work members. 

At this point we don’t have any details, we don’t know how many opportunities might be available, but best case scenario, PEA members who are willing to do tasks outside of their typical job duties would have the opportunity to continue working and preserve their leave balances.
We would like to create a list of members that we can present to labor relations early next week. If you are interested please contact your steward and provide them your contact information.

Stewards: Please communicate this with your members and keep track of who is willing to work in other areas. We will be contacting you for this information. 

Thank you,

Justine Roe
PEA Vice President