State to EDD workers: ‘Eat more carrots’
Updated 4:45 p.m., July 23State negotiators said Tuesday that over-worked employees simply need to “do more exercise and eat more carrots” to avoid stress from overtime at Employment Development Department (EDD) call centers.
State negotiators, who will not address our economic issues until the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agree on the budget, spent a day of bargaining disrespecting the workload concerns of our Informational, Financial and Public Resource Professionals (Unit 1).
We were insulted,” said Marlene Curley, an EDD disability insurance program representative in Riverside. “They denied there were any workload issues with EDD. But we presented them with e-mails from management urging employees to do more overtime because they were ‘drowning in claims with no end in sight.’ We were talking to them about workers being stressed out on the job because of work load and the constant requests for overtime. They said it was because of poor choices of diet and exercise. They told us to do more exercise and eat more carrots.
