By Mitchel Wilson
In DuPage County Sherriff, 13 LA 1131 (Wolff 2013), the arbitrator sustained the Union’s grievance based on the assertion that the County was preventing deputies from taking vacation in violation of the CBA terms.
The language of the CBA provided that no more than two Patrol Deputies per “watch” would be on vacation at a time, unless there was sufficient manpower to allow for more. The County argued that a watch was determined by the shift of the Watch Commander and that whichever Watch Commander an officer is under, determines whether an officer could take a vacation or not. Because there were two Watch Commanders, each supervising two teams per shift, this would only permit four deputies to be on vacation at a time.
However, the Union argued that the Watch Commander is not the deciding factor of what constitutes a “watch” and the arbitrator agreed. According to the Union, there are four teams or “watches,” which would permit for eight deputies to be on vacation simultaneously, not four. The arbitrator sided with the Union largely because of the language of the CBA:
The County’s argument that because one Watch Commander supervises two teams only one deputy can be off on vacation at the same time is insupportable under §11.2 of the Vacation Article. The word “Commander” does not appear in that section. The word, “division” does appear in the same General Order under IV.
The Union had further presented evidence that the deputies and the department had a working definition of what a “watch” is and it was consistent with those presented. When deposed about which “watch” they were assigned to, deputies did not refer to their Watch Commander but named the individual team or shift they were on.
The bottom line result is that two members of a team/shift/watch are entitled to be off on vacation at the same time. Accordingly, since there are now four teams, shifts or Watches, a total of eight employees, two from each team, are entitled to be off on vacation at the same time.
