In our center, management will post a list for cover drivers which shows whether or now they are driving the following week. These are posted on friday. I check this list every friday so that I can plan out the hours for my other job for the following week.
Last friday I checked this list and was unscheduled to drive for the week of 1/12/09-1/16/09. So I lined up the hours for my other job. I go into work on saturday for air driving and I get a message from from our district manager "please leave your phone on monday morning, we may need you to drive." I check the list which still shows unscheduled.
Monday comes, and I wait until 8:45am for the call asking me to come in, it never comes. I start to head to work and right when I get there at about 9:15am my on road supervisor calls me and says, "we have a route sitting here, can you come in and do it." I told him no I cannot since im already at my other job, just move down the list to the other drivers below me. He says ok, no problem. 30 minutes goes by and he calls back, I don't answer. He leaves a message which states "look we need you to come in, its a bad deal if you don't come in. Call me lets talk about it." As I'm sitting there thinking about whats going on my center manager calls me. He leaves me a message which states " We need you to come in, we have a route sitting here. I know you said you can't do it but you have to come in. If you don't, I'll sit down with a shop steward and you'll get a warning letter. Then, if you do it again we'll pull your DOT card."
I immediately called my shop steward and left him a message detailing what had just happened. He gets back to me and says basically the way he interprets the contract language is cover drivers are OFFERED the work in seniority order (which i declined). Then when that process is complete, the work is ASSIGNED in reverse seniority order. He's telling me that ASSIGNED means they can force me to come in if they have more routes than cover drivers sitting. IE there are 2 people below me, there are 3 routes sitting, they can FORCE all 3 of us to come in. And if we don't, we get warning letters.
My center manager said basically we won't be disciplined since this has never happened before. But I was in the right since there was only 1 route sitting there. He should have forced the lowest driver to come in.
But what I'm trying to find out, has this happened to anyone else before? Is this correct interpretation of the contract? They purposely understaff themselves and then they are always working supervisors and trying to keep me on call in the morning. With a second job to work when im not driving it makes it extremely difficult.
Last friday I checked this list and was unscheduled to drive for the week of 1/12/09-1/16/09. So I lined up the hours for my other job. I go into work on saturday for air driving and I get a message from from our district manager "please leave your phone on monday morning, we may need you to drive." I check the list which still shows unscheduled.
Monday comes, and I wait until 8:45am for the call asking me to come in, it never comes. I start to head to work and right when I get there at about 9:15am my on road supervisor calls me and says, "we have a route sitting here, can you come in and do it." I told him no I cannot since im already at my other job, just move down the list to the other drivers below me. He says ok, no problem. 30 minutes goes by and he calls back, I don't answer. He leaves a message which states "look we need you to come in, its a bad deal if you don't come in. Call me lets talk about it." As I'm sitting there thinking about whats going on my center manager calls me. He leaves me a message which states " We need you to come in, we have a route sitting here. I know you said you can't do it but you have to come in. If you don't, I'll sit down with a shop steward and you'll get a warning letter. Then, if you do it again we'll pull your DOT card."
I immediately called my shop steward and left him a message detailing what had just happened. He gets back to me and says basically the way he interprets the contract language is cover drivers are OFFERED the work in seniority order (which i declined). Then when that process is complete, the work is ASSIGNED in reverse seniority order. He's telling me that ASSIGNED means they can force me to come in if they have more routes than cover drivers sitting. IE there are 2 people below me, there are 3 routes sitting, they can FORCE all 3 of us to come in. And if we don't, we get warning letters.
My center manager said basically we won't be disciplined since this has never happened before. But I was in the right since there was only 1 route sitting there. He should have forced the lowest driver to come in.
But what I'm trying to find out, has this happened to anyone else before? Is this correct interpretation of the contract? They purposely understaff themselves and then they are always working supervisors and trying to keep me on call in the morning. With a second job to work when im not driving it makes it extremely difficult.