MAY NEWSLETTER 2019


AFGE Local 910 Family,

 

AFGE Local 910 now has over 1100 members!

 

Recruitment Information:

The AFGE national office is still offering a 100-dollar bonus check to any new member and their recruiter.  If you need more information, please contact the office at 816-922-2040 or email us at 910afge@910afge.org.

 

Save The Date:

The next lunch and learn and official membership meeting will be held on June 27th.  Lunch will be Mexican themed and will be served from 11am-1pm.  We have the Hall of Heroes all day, so if you come by after 1pm, we will be in the hall.  Dinner will be served from 4pm-6pm.  The official meeting will be from 5pm-6pm.  If you come by after 6pm, the food will still be ready and hot in the Hall of Heroes until 10pm.

Our new night time stewards will be working until 10pm in the hall to assist.

The presentation will be titled “Cook 2 Flourish, wellness workshop” and given by Robin and Julie Cook.

 

Leave Scramble:

AFGE is working with HR to produce a new MOU that explains the necessary use of VATAS and the importance of the leave scramble, more to come in a few months.

 

Current Employee Issues:

Can I have unopened alcoholic beverages in my car? Sometimes employees receive gifts at work or simply leave groceries in their cars that contain unopened bottles of alcohol. The KCVA has a very stick policy about absolutely no alcohol on the property.  This includes unopened alcohol in your vehicle.  If this is found, the police can issue a ticket.  This ticket is approximately a 100 dollar fine.

 

Can my supervisor call or text my personal cell phone?  The supervisor should only use your personal cell phone number to contact you about leave issues or ask you if you want to work overtime, comp time.  If the supervisor is using your personal cell phone for other issues this is against policy.  Please contact the office and the union will contact HR on your behalf to have this stopped.

 

Off site family event:

The next off-site family event will be held on Saturday September 14th.  This will be a free event, more information to come.

    

Debt Letters:

Employees notified of a debt owed to the US Government are afforded due process rights to request a waiver of the debt.  Employees choosing to invoke their right to request a waiver of the debt must do so in writing and submit the request for waiver to the local payroll office or to the finance office point of contact designated in local facility policy.  Employees requesting a waiver within 30 days will have payroll deductions placed on hold pending determination.

The Chief of the Finance Activity at the station where the person is employed will prepare a Report of Investigation for the signature of the Station Director or designee on all debts considered for waiver.

When the waiver decision is received, a copy must be provided to the employee and a copy must be sent to DFAS via a Remedy ticket.

A copy of the waiver decision must be retained in the employee’s payroll folder.

For complete information about debt letters and waiver requests, please send an email to jill.folsom2@va.gov

 

Office Staff:

We are happy to announce that the local has 2 new stewards, please welcome

  • Marcia Gerring
  • Erica Matthews

 

Leave without pay (LWOP) vs  AWOL:

As an employee you have the right to ask your supervisor to grant you leave without pay.   However, your supervisor does not have to issue you leave without pay.  If you are out of SL, and you call in sick and ask to use LWOP, it is up to the supervisor to decide if they will grant LWOP.  Article 35- time and leave:

  1. Requests for LWOP will be given serious, bona fide consideration.
  2. LWOP may be requested in the same manner and for the same purposes as annual leave and sick leave.  LWOP may be granted even though the employee has a sick or annual leave balance.
  3. See page 194 of the master agreement if you want more information about LWOP and other types of leave.

 

Hatch Act:

The 1939 Act forbids the intimidation or bribery of voters and restricts political campaign activities by federal employees. It prohibits using any public funds designated for relief or public works for electoral purposes. It forbids officials paid with federal funds from using promises of jobs, promotion, financial assistance, contracts, or any other benefit to coerce campaign contributions or political support.

 

Ticket Sales:

Worlds of Fun tickets are on sale currently.  The price is 20 dollars, limit of 6 per dues paying member.  This one ticket can be used towards the purchase of a season pass at the WOF box office.  Tickets expire on 12-30-19.  Each ticket is good for one person over the age of 2, to enjoy both parks (world and oceans) for one 24-hour period.

 

Contact Information:

AFGE has a new website.  www.afge910.com

We also have new cell phone numbers 816-924-4440  and  816-924-7733.

Cell phones are monitored Monday to Friday 8-430pm.

Email is 910afge@910afge.org

We also have Facebook.