UPDATE: Meet and Confer with DMV on Reporting for Unplanned Absences

On March 26, 2019, SEIU Local 1000 met with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to negotiate the impact of proposed changes to procedures for reporting unplanned absences. DMV’s change in policy would now require employees reporting an unplanned absence to call their supervisor 30 minutes prior to the start of their shift, rather than within the first 30 minutes after the start of their shift.

“At the table, DMV said this change brings the procedures for hourly employees into alignment with those for FLSA-exempt employees who are already under this requirement,” said Shelia Byars, Unit 1 DBUR and DMV Heat Team member.

“However, while we were at the table, the Department of Finance published the audit of DMV. After reading the audit, it was clear the policy change was more about the audit and bad press,” continued Ms. Byars.

“The audit lists a whole set of issues with DMV, including bad organizational structure, ineffective communication networks, inability to do proper workload analysis and long-term staffing plans, an IT system that doesn’t work, and years of delay and false starts on implementing Real ID” said Tom Krieger, Unit 4 DBUR and DMV Heat Team member. “It is absurd for DMV to think that changing how our members report unplanned absences will fix these larger issues,” continued Mr. Krieger.

Discussions to push back against the department continued through April 3. SEIU Local 1000 is opposed to these policy changes as a means to fix what was reported in the audit. Your team will continue to strongly object to the changes and to defend our members’ rights.