Dear Members:

It has been brought to our attention by Maintenance Management that standby duty will be suspended for all trades except Carpentry until further notice.  It was not explained to us why carpentry was excluded however, it was discussed with us that the Capital Outlay Budget is still underfunded and we were not given any indication as to if or when standby duty will resume.  On page 21, (Section 6) of our contract it clearly indicates that “the bureau/office head of designee may, at his/her discretion establish a category of duty designated as “standby” for any of the trade classifications within the unit”.  This of course also means that they can discontinue/suspend the practice.  We will continue to pursue the reinstatement of “standby” which we feel is a great benefit to the District, Community and especially the Children!  Hopefully this will only be a temporary situation.  If there are any changes we will notify our members as soon as possible.

Fraternally,

Joe Cortese, Business Representative