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At
A&R's Holiday Party from left, Social
Committee Co-Chair Ralph Barra, DJ Gilberto
Carrillo, A&R President Paul Krell,
State Comptroller Nancy Wyman, Secretary of
State Susan Bysiewicz, Social Committee
Co-Chair Christine Conroy, Attorney General
Richard Blumenthal.
-
Link to Eighth Page of Holiday Party
Photos
(posted
1/6)
Photos taken by Mary Norris
- Link to Seventh Page of Holiday Party
Photos
(posted
12/16)
Photos taken by Robert S. Scata.
-
Link to Sixth Page of Holiday Party
Photos
(posted
12/15)
Photos taken by Robert S. Scata.
-
Link to Fifth Page of Holiday Party
Photos
(posted
12/14)
Photos taken by Robert S. Scata.
- Link to Fourth Page of Holiday Party
Photos
(posted
12/11)
Photos taken by Robert S. Scata.
-
Link to Third Page of Holiday Party
Photos
(posted
12/10)
Photos taken by Robert S. Scata.
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Link to Second Page of Holiday Party Photos
(posted
12/9)
Yes, that is Teresa LaBarbera,
WFSB-TV3's traffic reporter.
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Link to First
Page of Holiday Party Photos
Designed to be viewed at Fit to Width
or 200%.
- Medically
Necessary Pharmacy Form Now Available
Here, Do Not Pay $25 for a Drug if
Your Doctor Believes it's Medically
Necessary
(posted
11/5)
If your give this form to your doctor
and he/she completes it identifying
why your particular drug is medically
necessary and faxes it to Caremark you
will never have to pay $25 for a
prescription.
Download
form.
- Latest
NIOSH Report on 25 Sigourney Street
(posted
11/6)
"...remediation
did not resolve the health issues in the
building."
"Initiate
a surveillance program to monitor
occupants' symptoms and new onset of
possible building-related illnesses."
For a copy of NIOSH's conclusions and
recommendations use this
link.
For a complete report call the A&R
office at 953-1316.
- Why Those Allergic to 25 Sigourney Street Should Get Out and Stay Out
(updated 10/17)
Use this
link to play a
QuickTime movie of Dr. Storey's testimony (20-second download).
Use this link to play a windows media file of Dr. Storey's testimony (20-second download for those people who had trouble playing the
QuickTime movie).
Using antihistamines all year round? Feel better after long weekends and vacations just to go back to feeling poorly shortly after you return to work? There is a procedure to get out of the building before your allergic reactions to dusts in the building lead to a permanent, possibly serious and progressive illness. Call the Union at 1-800-842-4443 for details.
- Being Transferred? Call the Union.
(reposted 9/4)
The SEBAC agreement and our contract provide for transfers by
layoff seniority and impose travel mileage limits on final reassignments. Some agencies seem uninformed about the contracts' language. If you're being transferred call the union at 1-800-842-4443 so that your rights will be protected.
- Mandatory Generic Prescription Substitution Applies to Current and Retired Employees
(posted 8/10)
What does "mandatory generic substitution" mean? It means that if you insist that the pharmacist give you the prescribed brand-name drug, when a generic equivalent is available, with only "dispense as written" on the prescription you will pay the difference in cost between the brand name and generic drug plus the generic co-pay ($5 or $3 depending on retirement status). If you want to avoid this charge, which averages approximately $100 per prescription, you must accept the generic drug or seek a medically necessary exemption.
How do we get a medically necessary exemption? Our doctors have to send a fax to Caremark explaining why it's medically necessary for us to take the brand-name drug instead of the generic drug. "Dispense as written" will no longer be sufficient. If we need the brand name drug, and want to avoid paying the difference in price between the brand-name drug and its generic equivalent, we will need a medically necessary exemption.
When we recently ratified the SEBAC agreement it contained the following language: "The prescription benefit plans will have mandatory generic substitution except that a physician may authorize an override based upon medical necessity certified by the physician in accordance with the PBM’s process.""PBM" stands for "pharmacy benefit manager', in our case CVS Caremark. CVS Caremark's procedures are what we and our doctors will have to follow. This aspect of the SEBAC agreement affects all current employees, and all retirees no matter when we retired.For the section of a handout from the Office of the State Comptroller on this subject, including the grace period and the telephone numbers to call to initiate the medically necessary exemption process click
here.
Click click
here for Retiree's Version
- State Employee Unions Can Sue Rowland Administration for Illegal Firings
(posted 7/16)
The Connecticut Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Connecticut's state employee unions are entitled to a trial on their claims that former Governor John M. Rowland illegally fired 2,800 state workers seven years ago. Rowland had requested immunity from charges he abused the power of his office to silence the voices of his critics when he fired thousands of members of the unions in the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) beginning in November of 2002.
The State employee unions contend that Governor Rowland targeted union employees for termination for refusing to give up their vested contract rights under their collective bargaining agreements, for opposing his Administration's policies, and for supporting his opponent in the 2002 gubernatorial elections. The contract agreements had been negotiated by Governor Rowland and were all approved by the Connecticut General Assembly. The Supreme Court decision expressly noted that under state law, the unions cannot be forced to give up their contract rights.
David S. Golub of the Stamford law firm of Silver, Golub & Teitell, counsel for SEBAC and the terminated union members, stated, "the State has admitted that it targeted unionized employees to try to compel their unions to give up their contract rights. That's illegal. The First Amendment guarantees that individuals can belong to unions and engage in union activity and can’t be penalized for doing so."
Golub stressed that the terminations had no relationship to budgetary savings. "This case isn't about laying off employees to save money; these terminations were ordered based on calculations of how many unionized employees had to be terminated in order to inflict enough pain on the unions to make them give up protected rights.”The case will now return to State Superior Court at Hartford for trial. A related case is also pending in Hartford federal court.Download the Associated Press article on this story
here.
- Agency Offer of ADA Accommodation Could Cost You Your Job
(posted 7/9)
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), permanently reduced productivity is not an available accommodation. For example, rheumatism reduces a workers' data entry speed and productivity. The worker wants to explain the situation and avoid a bad service rating. Management asks for a Doctor's letter for an ADA accommodation. While the Doctor does not have to give a diagnosis, the Doctor writes that you'll have permanently reduced productivity due to a permanent, progressive condition. The reduced productivity and the Doctor's letter could be grounds for bad service ratings and/or dismissal.
A reasonable accommodation might require a permanent reassignment to a different job (in the case of someone with arthritis, to a job with less typing perhaps) but performance standards do not have to be lowered as part of an ADA "reasonable accommodation". Management does not have to disrupt the entire workplace to accommodate you.
If management steers you away from a medical certificate (Article 19, Section Ten of our contract) and towards a request for a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, contact your union immediately. If you suffer from a permanent condition which affects your productivity, contact your union immediately.
Never give management your diagnosis without consulting with the union first. Experience has shown that in some agencies you don't want management to know your diagnosis. You are not required to give a diagnosis on a medical certification. You are are not required to give a diagnosis to apply for leave under the Family Medical Leave Act. You are not required to give a diagnosis to apply for a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). For an accommodation under ADA, the doctor only has to inform your department what functional limitations exist, as a result of your condition, that require an accommodation.
Have your family doctor write the paperwork. A specialist's specialty may, by itself, disclose more about your diagnosis than you want to reveal. Always ask the doctor to give you the completed forms. Never have the doctor mail them directly to your employer. This way, you can review them first and have them rewritten if necessary to avoid disclosing your diagnosis.
- A&R Committees Looking for Volunteers
(posted 7/1)
The following A&R Committees are looking for volunteers:
Budget Committee
Communications and Publicity Committee
Negotiating Committee
Social Committee
Professional Development Committee
Social Committee
Health and Safety Committee
Committee on Political Education
Civil Human and Women's Rights Committee.
If you, or a group of employees from your worksite is interested, telephone the Union office at 1-800-842-4443. We'll have the chairperson of the committee which interests you call you back with the details.
- Furlough Days and AWS
(posted 6/23)
Nothing in the recent SEBAC agreement with the State of Connecticut authorizes the State to modify any A&R AWS program.
A&R has voluntarily agreed to allow agencies to require members on 5/4 schedules to "flip" their short weeks (i.e., to take their short week in the week that doesn’t contain the furlough day and the holiday), and to require members on 4/4 schedules to work three eight hour days in any pay week in which a furlough day and a holiday occur. Other than these two exceptions, agencies cannot require A&R members to alter their current AWS schedules.
If your agency is requiring you to change your AWS schedule in ways other than the two exceptions noted above, please call Don Levenson at the Union Office at (860) 953-1316 so that these changes can be addressed.
- Michael Petosa Named Chairperson of the Negotiating Committee
(posted 6/15)
Michael
Petosa, Supervisor of Education, Safety and Health Services at the Workers Compensation Commission was confirmed as Chief Negotiator and Chairperson of the Negotiating Committee by the Representative Assembly at its meeting on June 9th.Chairperson Petosa will be responsible for the process by which we obtain our next contract. If you have ideas for the next contract, you can e-mail them to
mailar@aol.com.
- A&R 2009 Election Results
Click
here for further information.
- State Exam Score Lists Available Through A&R
(updated 5/5)
Latest: Economic and Community Development Agent. To request, use this email address:
mwataandr@aol.com. For listing of exam lists click
here.
- Lawsuit for Recalculation of Retirement for Pre-Longley Retirees
(posted 4/28)
Click
here for further information.
- Compensatory Time Does Not Expire in A&R
In 2003, Accenture's staff called the A&R office to let us know our compensatory time would expire after six months because that was how CORE-CT was going to be programmed. After a brief chuckle at the audacity of the caller, A&R's President at the time informed Accenture that our members earn compensatory time under our contract, and could not be deprived of earned time without due process. Such due process would have to be in the contract. Under some union contracts compensatory time does expire. In A&R's contract there is no time-related "comp-time" expiration clause. For A&R members compensatory time stays on the books until taken, or until the member is paid for the compensatory time, or retires. (Unused compensatory time does "expire" at retirement. See Article 16, Section Five(d)(4) of the contract.) Since 2003, the "expiration" issue has come up several times and each time the member was able to use the compensatory time.
Make sure that any compensatory time earned appears on your official time and attendance records. A new manager might not consider him/herself bound by an "under-the-table" arrangement and you might not be able to prove you earned the compensatory time.
Under specific circumstances, departments may choose to pay cash in lieu of comp time. See Article 16, Section Five(d) subparagraphs (5) and (6), and Article 17, Section Four.
If any member is threatened with the loss of compensatory time, please call the Union at (860) 953-1316 or 1-800-842-4443.
- DOIT and Agencies Reviewing E-mails and Computer Hard Drives
(posted 3/27)
The Department of Information Technology (DOIT) and many state agencies are reviewing e-mails and contents of hard drives of state employees. State employees are being walked out the door after personal business and/or pornographic material is found. If state employees have been sharing such materials, the trail leads from employee to employee to employee.
Do not use state equipment for anything other than state business!
If you're accused of misusing your computer, say nothing and contact the union. Say nothing, even if you know you're innocent. It is our experience that giving management an explanation does not make the charge go away. By defending yourself, you may lose the right to refuse to answer questions (Article 14, Section Six(b) of our contract).
- Social Committee Events
To sign up for an event, call 1-800-842-4443. For more information click
here.
- DAS States that Employees can Use State Computers to Visit Union Websites
DAS has some surprising new answers to what it calls frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the Acceptable Use of State Systems Policy.
20. Q: Can an employee use the state telephone to receive/make calls relating to doctors appointments, union matters and/or check on status of children, etc? A: Yes. However, time spent on personal calls should be kept to a minimum.
22. Q: May a caller leave a personal message in an employee's voicemail box? For example, if a doctor's office is calling to confirm an appointment? A: Yes. However, these types of situations should be limited to only those requiring prompt attention.
25: Q. Is it okay for employees to visit their union's website using a State computer? A: Yes
26. Q: Is it okay for users to distribute Union information via (State) e-mail? A: No.
27: Q: Is it okay for employees to use (State) e-mail to contact their Union Steward to arrange for representation? A: Yes
- Union Attorney Available for Workers Compensation Appeals
A&R has a surprising (for a white-collar union) number of Workers Compensation claims. Besides workers being injured on the job, claims are being filed because the leaky State-owned or leased buildings make some members sick. If a member loses his/her claim at the first step of the Workers Compensation process, he/she should file an appeal and then contact the A&R Union (1-800-842-4443). Through an arrangement with AFT CT, the Union will provide an attorney to handle the appeal hearing before the Workers Compensation commissioner.
- Update Your A&R Member Information
Members please contact the A&R Union office at 800-842-4443 with any changes to your home address, agency or job title. We DO NOT receive these changes from your Human Resources Department.
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