Summary of Major Components of the Tentative Agreement
2009-2012 NEASO-NEA

Article 4—Joint Labor-Management Committee
•    Inclusion of language for NEA and NEASO to designate a JLMC Steering Committee to coordinate the process and work of the JLMC (Section 1)
•    New language on collaborating on the impact of reorganization and restructuring, and requirement that NEA refer such issues to the JLMC as soon as practicable (Section 4(d))
•    Departmental JLMCs to devise procedures for allocation of office space (to be used in case of changes) (Section 5(d))
•    NEA JLMC to devise and implement an initiative on good stewardship of NEA resources (new article)
•    Revenue-sharing program to be developed

Article 7—Categories of Employment
•    Current and future term employees hired into a permanent position are credited with participation in the retirement plan retroactive to their date of hire as a term employee; get credit toward retiree health care benefits; accrue seniority; are eligible for the Medical Leave Bank; and receive leave for jury duty and military service; cannot participate in the long-term disability plan; the prior contract was silent on retroactivity, but term employees who became permanent employees received only partial pension credit (depending on start date and length of contract) and no retiree medical credit (Section 14(b))

Article 8—Probation
•    Now the probationary period is 9 months (down from 12 months), effective June 1, 2010; JLMC to develop program to ensure efficient and effective transition to the new probationary period (Section 2)
•    Effective June 1, 2010, probationary employees receive informal progress review at approximately two, five, and eight months from hire date; if hired on or after June 1, 2009, but before June 1, 2010, reviews at approximately three, six, and nine months (Section 1)
•    For a period of 12 months, new employees cannot apply for other vacancies unless agreed upon mutually by NEA and NEASO (Section 3)
•    Elimination of section related to probation starting anew for probationary employees who apply for and are selected for another position (Section 4)

Article 11—Work Schedule
•    Effective June 1, 2010, six percent shift premium applied to regularly scheduled work on Saturdays and Sundays (up from 3 percent); expansion of application of premium to all employees (prior contract eliminated the premium for those hired after June 1, 1984 (Section 2(b))
•    Temporary alternative work schedule: employee and supervisor may mutually agree to schedule one-for-one time off within the same pay period (new section)
•    Appeal process for denial or termination of telework agreement (used to be only for denial); new process for addressing telework appeals (Section 4(m))
•    Establishment of joint committee to study feasibility of job-sharing, part-time work, and related issues (new section)

Article 13—Holidays
•    Removal of restriction on being absent without approval on the last scheduled workday before paid holiday or first scheduled workday after paid holiday (Section 3(b))
•    Removal of RA/Independence Day overtime/comp time exception, such that regular holiday pay rules are in effect (Section 4(c))

Article 14—Authorized Leave 
•    New provision to allow, at employee’s option, annual leave buy-back once a year; up to two weeks of accumulated annual leave can be sold at 50 percent of current pay rate; buy-back to take place in February of each year (new section)
•    Increase (from 19 months to 24 months) in time allotted to use annual leave (Part A, Section 4)
•    Stronger language related to supervisors’ responsibility to respond to annual leave requests, which they are to respond to within 14 calendar days (as opposed to prior language, which referred to responding “in a timely manner” (Part A, Section 5)
•    Inclusion of language related to use of administrative leave (payroll code AD) if NEA has to close the building; prior language referred only to sending employees home (Part F, Section 1(c))
•    Removal of limitation on probationary employees’ bereavement leave; prior wording restricted bereavement leave to three days (Part G)

Article 15—Travel
•    Increase in amount of travel credit allowance to $550 (from $500) and reduction of number of overnights required to qualify for the allowance to 20-29 nights (from 25-29 nights) (Section 6(a))
•    New language related to employees who become incapacitated by injury or illness while on NEA travel: NEA will take reasonable steps and incur reasonable costs to bring such employees home (Section 2(b))
•    Daily meal allowance of $74 for first contract year (and then adjusted by formula) (Section 3(a))
•    Increase in threshold requirement for receipts for overtime meals, from $10 to $25 (Section 3(g))

Article 17—Discipline and Discharge
•    Expansion of informal methods of dealing with disciplinary issues (Part A, Section 1 and Section 2)
•    Clarification that probationary employees cannot be discharged in violation of relevant law; prior language referred only to violation of Article 5 of the contract (Part B, Section 1(b))
•    Provides flexibility to expunge disciplinary material from an employee’s personnel file in less than two years; prior language required two years (Part B, Section 7)

Article 23—Staffing
•    Inclusion of requirement that notice of vacancies be posted on NEA internal bulletin board before any external posting (Part B, Section 2(a))
•    Requirement that if an internal candidate is deemed not qualified for a job, NEA must notify the candidate in writing of the reasons before external candidates can be interviewed or the job can be posted externally (Part B, Section(c))
•    Change in how an employee who moves from one classification to a higher classification is placed on the employee’s new step; new step must be at least two steps above what the employee’s salary was before the change (Part C, Section 2)

Article 24—Personnel files
•    Change of language to permit NEASO members to have access to the grievance procedure for issues related to information placed in personnel files (Article 24(c))
•    Clarification that supervisors can keep files regarding employees, and that such files are not part of employees’ personnel files; such files can only be shared with those with a “legitimate need to know”; managers to make good-faith effort to maintain appropriate security of files (Section 5)
•    Clarification that NEA shall keep applications for promotion/transfer in accordance with the NEA Document Retention Policy; if there is a grievance or complaint, NEA shall keep the application until it is resolved, or in accordance with the timeframe set forth in the NEA Document Retention Policy, whichever is longer (Section 6)

Article 25—Employee Performance
•    Establish a joint task force to develop a performance review process
•    Guarantee that the performance review process cannot be used for disciplinary action
•    Employees can use the Article 36 grievance process to challenge the performance review process and use an alternative dispute resolution process to handle disagreements about the substance of the performance review process

Article 26—Education and Staff Development
•    Inclusion of a sabbatical program for Rank 6 and Rank 7; six-month maximum; two eligible people can use sabbatical time per year; joint NEASO-NEA committee will develop a process for recommending sabbaticals to NEA (new article)

Article 28—Union Activities
•    Increase in number of hours allotted to NEASO for union work, up from 500 per year: 700 hours in first contract year, 1,000 in second year, 700 in third year (Section 2)
•    Change in the way bargaining prep takes place: 60 days before expiration of contract, up to 7 NEASO members will have reasonable time to prepare and bargain, but can have more people on the team if NEA chooses to have more people; prior language limited to two days the amount of prep time within 60 days, and gave six days for bargaining (Section 7)
•    Clarification that NEASO will notify HR and employee will notify appropriate supervisor if the employee is going to use union time (payroll code AU) (Section 8)

Article 30—Bulletin Boards
•    Inclusion of language related to NEA providing space to NEASO on InsideNEA (Section 2)

Article 31—Strikes
•    Elimination of language related to strike activity (with new language on strike activity added to new article on union solidarity (see below) (Section 3 and Section 4 eliminated)

Article 36—Dispute Resolution
•    Includes new language related to how an employee and supervisor can “reasonably attempt” to resolve problems informally (Part A, Section 2)
•    Changes Step I in the grievance process by allowing parties to mutually select a hearing officer other than the area department director
•    Parties can resort to mediation by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services (FMCS); permits mediation after a Step I meeting when decided by the area or other NEA director, and before a Step II hearing in the Art. 36 grievance process; (before, the contract called for the hearing officer to be the director of the department in which the grievant worked)
•    Requires NEASO to notify NEA, within 25 days of receiving a Step II decision, of NEASO’s intent to submit a Step II decision to arbitration, and to actually submit the grievance to arbitration within 30 days of that notice, unless the parties mutually agree otherwise
•    Requires all arbitrations to be transcribed, unless the parties agree otherwise
•    Allows post-hearing briefs submitted by either both or neither of the parties

Article 37—Salary Schedule
•    Across-the-board increases of 2 percent on June 1, 2009, September 1, 2010, and February 1, 2012; step increases remain as is (Section 1)

Article 38—Retirement
•    Inclusion in contract of the memorandum of understanding that obligates NEA to fund the defined benefit pension plan
•    Employees hired on or after June 1, 2009, will pay 3.5 percent of salary into pension plan; however, anyone who started or will start work on or after June 1, 2009, but had received a job offer that did not mention the contribution will not make the contribution
•    For all NEASO employees, 401(k) contributions of 7 percent in 2009, 2 percent on January 1, 2010; 3 percent on January 1, 2011; and 4 percent on January 1, 2012 (Part B, Section 3)

Article 39—Life Insurance, Medical and Other Benefits
•    New prescription drug co-pay structure: $0/$15/$25 (as opposed to $7/$15/$25 in prior contract)
•    Creation of joint health care initiative to improve employees’ health and cut plan costs (new section)
•    Creation of education campaign on the lifetime retiree health care benefit; this does not change the benefit in any way but will ensure that employees receive more information about it

Article 41—Health and Safety
•    Clarification of language related Recognition of joint Wellness/Ergonomic/Employee Assistant Program Committee; committee will develop recommendations for implementations on health/wellness activities and ergonomic issues (Section 3)
•    NEA to ensure that every office/work space has fresh, outdoor air and a means to exhaust air (Section 8(a))

Article 42—Parking/Transportation Benefit
•    Creation of transportation/commuting account for Metrocheks or parking with pre-tax dollars; will provide $60 per month in Metrocheks or similar program if NEA is legally prohibited from creating accounts (moved from later in the article)
•    NEASO members who do not have a parking permit can choose one of the following in a contract year: monthly commuting benefit (metro or other local transit) of $60 per month or a reimbursement of $10 per month or $120 per contract year for the purchase and/or maintenance of, with receipt, a bicycle or bicycle-related accessories where such costs are incurred for the purpose of commuting;  an employee using a pre-tax transportation/commuting account would still be able to contribute their own pre-tax money into the account, but the maximum that could be contributed pre-tax would be decreased by the $60 from NEA (new section)
•    NEA will maintain a bike rack for employee use (new section)
•    Parking permit cost, per pay period, for 2009-2010 contract year: $48 (down from $54) (formula still applies to determine cost in subsequent years) (Section 3)
•    Parking permit cost, per pay period, for registered carpools and fuel-efficient cars: $39 (formula still applies to determine cost in subsequent years) (Section 3)
•    Number of parking permits for NEASO members capped at 214

Article 43—Technology Benefit
•    Increase in technology benefit to $500 over contract, up from $250

Article 44—Contracting Out Bargaining Unit Work
•    Further limits NEA’s ability to contract out by applying restrictions on this practice to all contracting out, not just contracting out that results in the involuntary transfer of one or more employees, as prior language said (Section 3)
•    Broadens the types of information on contracting out that NEA will provide to NEASO, including information on which contracts have been renewed and for how long they were renewed (Section 4(ii))
•    Broadens information that NEA must gather on possible consultants/vendors to include whether the contractor is a union employer or entity (Section 7)
•    Broadens parts of the contracting out article to be grievable (new section)

Article 47—Duration        
[Note that the table of contents of the printed version of the contract lists this as Article 46]
•    6/1/09 to 5/31/12      

New Article—Union Solidarity
•    Includes wording that it is NEA’s intent to buy union-made products and services, use union facilities, and honor union boycott lists
•    Includes revised language from Article 31 (see above), eliminating the restriction on employees using paid leave if they do not work because of a strike
•    Streamlined language saying that “employees shall not be required to cross a striking union’s picket line nor shall they be disciplined for refusing to cross such a picket line”
•    Calls for NEASO and NEA to jointly sponsor at least one“union fair” every year
•    Provides for JLMC to develop guidelines for implementation of this article (Sections 1-7)
Attachment C—Guidelines for Joint NEA/NEASO Classification Committee
•    Clarifies that a classification request can be submitted to the HR department by an employee without prior approval of the supervisor or manager
•    Requires HR to consider all requests
•    Reclassification interviews to be conducted by HR within 30 days of the submission of the request
ITS Memorandum of Agreement
•    May be reopened by either party a year from the effective date of the new contract