eNews Jan. 31, 2019 – Action Alert

Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 09:03am

Make calls today opposing Local Employee Grievance Procedure changes

HB2736 (Hugo) requires that the final step of the local government employee grievance procedure be “as agreed upon by the aggrieved employee and the local government.” The bill will be before the full House Counties, Cities & Towns Committee this Friday morning (Feb. 1).

Action

Please urge members of the House Counties, Cities & Towns Committee to vote “No” on the bill.

The members of the committee are: Ingram, Stolle, Marshall, Poindexter, Morefield, Hodges, Webert, Austin, Campbell, J.L., McGuire, Thomas, McNamara, Herring, Heretick, Bell, John J., Krizek, Mullin, Hayes, Guzman, Reid, Roem, and Murphy

Talking points for HB2736

The bill makes it difficult and cumbersome for a disgruntled employee and the locality to agree on a process and/or an administrative hearing officer.
Eliminates the longstanding impartial grievance panels used by localities.
Shifts interpretation of whether the relief that is provided the grievant complies with local government policy from the chief administrative officer of the locality to the Commonwealth’s Attorney, who may have no knowledge or experience in employment policy.
Takes away the locality’s power to have a grievance procedure in place that has worked and is known to all employees.
Eliminates the provision requiring the decision to be consistent with local policy.
This change to the local grievance procedure is unnecessary. Law enforcement personnel already have the option of choosing to follow the local grievance procedure or to use the procedure under the Law Enforcement Procedural Guarantee Act. (The Police Benevolent Association has been a primary proponent of this bill in the last several years.)

VML Contact: Michelle Gowdy, mgowdy@vml.org