Don't know if you noticed, but our paychecks were just a little bit short. Welcome to no pay holidays.
The hits will keep on coming. July 4th is just a mere 2 weeks away.
Monday, June 21, 2010
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44 comments:
If you're gonna FURLOUGH me... FURLOUGH ME!....Damn it if you're not gonna pay me, LET ME SPEND IT WITH MY FAMILY or AT HOME WORKING ON THE HOUSE!
SLAVE LABOR rears its ugly head in Dekalb.
Surprise!!!! How is it this wasn't clearly explained so that we all knew this was coming?
I guess they kept it secret to make sure we weren't parking out units and just responding to dispatches!
Funny....the were just bitchin' about tickets last week.
Did they just flat out deduct one day from our check?.... so I wasn't on the clock when came
home from a "long weekend" and punched in?
I thought they just weren't gonna give me a banked holiday anymore? WTF!
Officer X, you will now contribute one day's pay to the county budget each holiday. Damn, atleast give me a receipt so I can write off that "charitable donation".
Just another failure this county and its leadership is about to experience publicly. It's one thing to not provide paid holidays but an entirely ILLEGAL one to force people to work on a day for which they aern't being compensated. These class actions suits are hilarious and makes me SO glad i'm not paying for it as a tax paying Dekalb resident haha... IDIOTS
Is is legal to dock pay if you worked your 40 and then turn around and give you a holiday?
Please expand on this as I was just told of this when talking to an officer over at Palmer Tactical.
He tried explaining how they're shorting you guys but I just don't get it. Aren't you owed the pay as a basis of what you guys are paid? How do they get to adjust your pay downwards from the standard they agreed to when you hired on?
The county is doing us dirty once again. They initially said that public safety would NOT be "furloughed". I guess they changed the budget after telling us this. They said public safety would just not bank holidays when they worked on a holiday and if they were off for the holiday, they wouldn't be payed.
They reduce our pay by 10% for the pay period instead of just giving us a day off, which, unfortunately is legal.
Thank goodness we are hiring bottom of the barrel morons to put a warm body on the street to handle a false alarm call. My question is, why is the county hiring more people when they can't even afford to pay the the employees they already have? Sorry folks, but I would rather have my full pay than a mouth breather who won't pull his weight, or who is just plain scared to do this job working beside me.
Monteith,
Here's how holidays used to work. We had paid holidays.
When a holiday came around, say July 4th or Memorial Day, you are either scheduled to work, it is your off day, or you took the day off.
If you are working or if it is your scheduled off day, you got credited on banked holiday that you can use at a later date. The banked holiday is for all practical purposes an additional paid vacation day.
If it was your day to work and you took the day off, you were paid for a "holiday taken on the holiday"..ie instead of burning a vacation day, you burned the holiday credit that you got for that very day.
Hope you're following.....
Okay... they announced there would be no paid holidays moving forward. We were bummed, but figured...okay, they will just no longer be putting a banked holiday in our account to be used at a later date. This week we found out that in addition to not getting that banked holiday placed in our "account"...to be used later.... we were billed for a day's work.
They didn't simply not give us the day to be used at a later date, they docked our checks on full day.
Public Safety got hit with a double whammy! We didn't get the banked day and we got our paychecks docked!
Like someone stated above... If you're gonna furlough me, do it.
Let us spend time with our families or go work a part time where we can make up the difference!
Sure am glad I took the Early Retirement. No more getting screwed by DeKalb County.
Some one see if the CEO staff is being docked as well please.
Why was this unfunded holiday a big surprise to some of you? The Commission decided months ago that we would not get paid for the remaining 7 holidays this year. Well, that began with Memorial Day. Remember get the same 10% pay reduction/unpaid holiday last year?? It was made pretty clear the same thing would happen 7 times this year. Get your heads out of the sand. Be prepared for 3 unpaid holidays in November, 2 of those on the same paycheck (1st paycheck in December). Is this real to you now??
Look at the paycheck you got about three weeks ago. Look at your Monthly Rate at the top. Multiply that by 12 and that's your supposed yearly pay. Take a look at your paycheck from a few days ago. Look at the Monthly Rate. Notice a difference?
I don't see how this is legal. The county is basically saying, "This week we feel like paying you this much. Next week, who knows? Maybe less! Maybe much less!"
*** Special Notice: if you're a County Commissioner or CEO, ignore the first paragraph. You will not notice a difference in your paychecks at all! ***
Head out of the sand..... we were led to believe we would no longer be "banking holidays"..... this docking my pay is an mother frack'n FURLOUGH!
You get shorted/docked pay when furloughed..... losing pay and the agreed upon banked holiday is a different story all together.
FYI, no other government agency has gone this route of pay-cuts, I have researched and found a few local governments, three or four, that deleted several specific paid holidays, not everyone of them as DeKalb did. DeKalb leaders, and I use that word loosely, had no intention of taking the unpaid holidays they decreed for employees, they have made statements indicating they will return the equivalent pay, but if they had, they would make a publicity and political statement out of it and that has not happened. I urge our dysfunctional media to ask the fracken’ “tough questions” to DeKalb politicians, and ask for the receipts and records of the payments made to the county by the BOC to match the employee pay-cut.
To the police officers and my ex-coworkers who have to work or be on-call during the unpaid holidays, I suggest y’all start casting about for a good lawyer to represent you, and sue the county. This has to be done for several reasons, First it is anti-American to force employees to work for no pay. This is known as slavery and was outlawed a 150 years ago with Lincoln’s glorious emancipation proclamation. Second, the county will continue to use the same tactics in the future if they are allowed to get away with it.
It would be one thing if the county BOC announced that it was saddened that economics forced the county to eliminate paid holidays and those forced to work at no pay on a holiday received some appreciation and recognition from the BOC for their day as “community service workers”.
This really sux mates, do something about it!
I don’t like this anymore than the rest of you. But why the hell are so many of you shocked by this? They told you back in January that they were going to do this. You need to start paying attention to the B.O.C. meetings and the statements that the C.E.O.is making.
Someone may need to cantact the news station about this and let them check to see if the CEO & the BOC pay was reduced.
Guess this is why only 7 citations have been turned in for the past 2 days.
Pay stubs...check your stubs... we got credited the banked holiday, but we were charged for it. The county forced us to buy an off day.
Sorry guys, You know how the County is and you still CHOOSE to work at DEKALB County, kinda of like staying in a abusive relationship.
Knights of Columbus, that hurt!
I agree with the people who have said, "if you are going to furlough me..then let me have the day off." Whether the county can "legally" take 10% or not (which only a class action suit can truly decide), the county should not be doing this. I understand that other counties are having budget problems, and some are even mandating furlough days. The difference with DeKalb is that the county does not have the decency to let the employees have a furlough day. The county wants to take the pay and have us work the day. DeKalb is the only county, that I am aware of, that is utilizing this tactic.
People used to work for Dekalb because of the pay, no longer the case. Having said that, any of you staying long term better organzie. Not long ago chiefs would order a ticket stoppage and only expect warnings to be issued to get funding for officers from commissioners by showing what that slowdown would cost the county. Needless to say no one is brave enough or talented enough for that now.
I am all for the ticket slow-down, mates! Nothing gets the BOC's attention like hitting them in the pocketbook. This would also allow Recorders Court some "breathing space" to get up to date on all the current unpaid citations. Talk it up among yourselves and decide what is in your best interests, and the citizens. We all know speed limits are deliberately set low to maximize non-tax revenue in DeKalb, not for safety. DKPD officially has no quota for tickets, and if they do, what are they going to do to you? Not give you a raise? Haargh!
Sure we have a QUOTA.....bring in a stack of warnings and see how fast you are transferred for lack of productivity.
Regarding formentioned comment of fear of transfer, GROW A PAIR. If everyone does it transfers wouldn't be possible and who cares anyway. This isn't a job for cowards.
Grow a pair?...... what good is a "pair" when rookies and officers in special units are kissing ass?
Have you walked around Center's lately......
There are reserved units parked along the fence....there are reservd units marked with "Do not drive...Reserved per Major Higdon" parked next to the uniform cars......
All these "Special Units" have their own offices where their Sgt.'s sit and the officers hang out and have roll call. The roll call room is below them.
Do you really see them signing on to a slow down?..... this department is about perks and privileges......same as the Bolton years. Only the names have changed.
Try and stand up for what is right at your own peril..... been there done that.....not again... answer my calls and punch the clock.
I second the citation stoppage. Let's FINALLY stop being the victim and start fighting back. Thanks for giving us a voice blog owners. Let's put it to a vote. Every officer that concurs with the slowdown indicate here and now and let the righteous fight begin. Godspeed
Its all a political show. Remember when APD got furloughed and the officers and citizens started complaining that there would be less officers on the streets? Now the CEO can tell the Dekalb citizens that there is no reduction in the number of officers on the streets, so he doesnt have to deal with that backlash! It's all a political game my friends. Remember this at election time. He cuts your pay, but rewards his friend Mr Miller with a very high paying, unnecessary position. Then he takes supervisors off the streets to attend this elementary Customer Service training, but never disciplines or offers a public apology for the lack of customer service extended by his spokeswoman, Sheila Edwards. Sad!
So does anyone know the name of a good lawyer or is a class action lawsuit a better way to go?
What if you're an 911 operator? They are triple screwed. Operators pay does not come out of the County's budget! It comes from the 911 fees on phone bills. So why are they taking money from the operators in the name of budget cuts, when their salaries are do not affect the County's budget? It is inconceivable that no one seems to think something is wrong with this.
There are many labor attorneys in Atlanta. The best part is, they work on contingency. We wouldn't have to pay anything up front. They would just get a portion of the settlement or judgment.
Go about this “ticket slowdown” with some thought. Here is a better idea. Write the right tickets, and plenty of them. It costs the county $40-$50 to process a ticket - and that’s probably a low estimate. Consider the time it takes you to stop a car, write a ticket, process the ticket, send it to recorders court, they process it, set a court date, mail letters, have all the people in place to handle the ticket - judges, staff, deputies - handle collecting fines and so on. Not to mention the building - maintenance, electricity, copy machines etc. - and all it takes to just open those doors. Another thing, those ticket books probably cost the county about $15 each. It could cost the county up to a $100 or more just to process one ticket.
Now, if we “write the right” tickets - low cost tickets where the county can only collect a set fine - say $25 - then it costs the county $100 to collect a $25 fine - the county loses big time. Then the point is made. And you write your “quota” of tickets and keep the brass of your a$$. If you come in with 3-4 seatbelt tickets and maybe a cracked lens or a headlight ticket - bam! - there are your tickets for the day. Not to mention you perform an important service by keeping the citizens of the county safe. At the same time you are not slamming the citizens with an outrageous speeding fine - which is just another way to say that you are not letting the county institute a tax on the citizens that the commissioners don’t have to answer for.
Also, if citizens pay those small tickets off by mail, there would be another loss in the parking tax the county has just instituted.
Just check your code book for any violations that set a maximum fine recorders court can impose - which are mostly equipment violations. Keep it less than $50 bucks and the county will lose money every time pen is put to paper. Of course there are some violators that need to be slapped real hard - dui’s, heavy speeders and those who are just plain ignorant - but you know who they are.
The county wants to play politics with our paycheck and make us pay for the tax increase they don’t want to put on their constituents. All of us are having to shell out hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, each year, so the taxable citizens don’t have to pay an extra $100 or so a year in a tax increase.
Get the word out to “Write the Right” tickets....
Anon 10:51, J. Tom Morgan or John Petrie might be a start, or a labor lawyer. They don't work for free, either!
Anon 10:26, you are my worst nightmare, mate. It is not DKPD's job to provide revenue to DeKalb government. Public safety is DKPD's job.
Writing a lot of BS citations will win you the thanks of your superiors and the fury of the citizens. No raises are permitted at this time.
We are trying to win a war, not piss off the tax payers.
Whose side are you on? Better, cheaper government, or the status quo of being screwed at every opportunity by the BOC?
"WRITE THE RIGHT TICKETS" very smart idea and well thought out.
Loflyer,
You missed the point...Mate.
Check your Kronos again.. I got my holiday hours banked..
Anon 01:10 hours - that's just it - the 911 fees DO NOT go for the Comm Center's salaries, equipment, etc. That was changed a while back in the Marinelli era - when they were preparing to move to Northlake. That was manipulated all over the place (remember when our buddy Don Frank was nutting up when someone would mention that the totally non-functional EOC was built using 911 User Fees?) and I'm sure was filtered back into the general funds. Is there mismanagement of the 911 User Fees? YOU BET - BUT - guess who will do the audit IF the State requests it? You guessed it - the agency in question. Guess what you'll find? NOTHING.
If on the other hand, someone proves that the Comm Center salaries are indeed coming out of 911 User Fees, then they'll be a LOT of extra monies laying around at the end of the year by these "non-furlough" holidays. And guess what - if you don't use your entire 911 User Fees collected, you MUST reduce the amount collected the next year.
A REAL investigation would unearth so many skeletons it would make the tri-state crematory incident look like a flower garden. (No disrespect meant toward anyone affected by that horrible crime scene - its just an analogy.)
INDEED... Common knowledge now that previous Sheriff Elect murder was due to drug running using SO vehicles back & forth from Fl., etc and not over the simplicity of the election. Just the tip of iceberg friends and a lot of the crooks are still here. ...TEMPORARILY
To KRONOS,
If you worked it shows you banking a holiday, but take a look at the monthly pay rate it was reduced by 10%. And I hate to tell you but everyone was reduced by 10% except the BOC, Little Lord Fauntleroy and his staff.
My last comment came out dead wrong, mates. I just don't want DeKalb citizens getting beat up over this mess with a lot of BS tickets.
LoFlyer, it's not beating up the citizens over BS tickets. It's the law to do things like wear a seatbelt, keep all your brake lights working, etc. There are usually just bigger issues to grab the attention of an officer.
If I got pulled over for a broken taillight, yes, I'd be upset at first. However, I'd bring the paperwork to court showing that I'd replaced the part and hope the officer would allow the ticket to be dropped.
I live in Dekalb, go ahead and write tickets to your little heart's content. I'd love to see it.
This conversation is a joke. DKPD officers couldn't organize a tidley winks game and Dekalb County knows it.
Why isn't anyone questioning the fact that 10% is more than a day's pay. You were deducted approx 16 hours of pay which is more than one holiday. Over the course of a year (depending on what you make) it will equate to the county taking an extra $1,000 out of your checks. I'm not an officer but don't understand why this is tolerated. Is it legal? Where is the documentation justifying the equlivalent of 16 hours of pay when you work 10 hours? Damn it's not like they can take your raises because you're not getting one. Fight back! Working for Dekalb just isn't worth it
It's this mistreatment of county employees why Ellis and BOC have all the security they do. It is someone amongst us possibly going postal that I believe is the real reason for the high level of security. Not Bolton. And what a slap in the face too....to make some among the masses being screwed to provide the security.
I see a lot of people alarmed and pissed on here. So, perhaps a union won't work for us because we won't come together and organize. But damn it, if you are not involved in something like the PBA or better suited I think the FOP, yesterday was the time to run to sign up. Just do it. There are great benefits also for you as well. Join up and ticket slow down, ticket slow down, ticket slow down. For those who may not know or noticed, Recorders Court has more work than they can handle right now anyway. They will relish the opportunity to catch up. This mistreatment is bullshit! We all know it and complain about it, especially here on this site. It's time to STAND UP!!! JUST DO IT!!!
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