Dear Members,
We have all been inundated with Covid-19 information and updates. This is an extraordinary situation and information changes on an hourly basis. For that reason, we have limited what we send out to minimize our members’ anxiety. UUP will focus on addressing issues affecting our members. We’ll defend the Collective Bargaining Agreement between NY State and UUP where it speaks to the current issues.
The Governor has announced that all Non-Essential state employees should not go to work for the next 2 weeks. Many of our members are designated as essential personnel. If you fall into that category you should know it. If you do not know what your status is in regards to being emergency personnel, please inquire with your supervisor. If it is determined that campus must close for a period of time, what is required of emergency personnel is different than our general membership.
Many offices are working hard to accommodate members’ ability to work from an alternative location. This must be discussed with one’s supervisor. The supervisor may have to discuss it with someone at a Director or Dean level. As part of securing approval for working from an alternative location, real work must be able to be accomplished. There is no *right* to work from home—you must discuss this with your supervisor. Right now, would be a good time to review and make sure all of our Time & Attendance record information is up to date. Doing so will reduce issues arising if a member needs to use sick/vacation time when away from campus.
This is important to members who can’t take advantage of working from an alternative location. We have been in regular communication with HR and the administration since the start of COVID-19 impact on New York. We have already addressed many members’ individual concerns and we will continue to work with them and HR throughout this crisis. The Governor’s Office of Employee Relations released a memo in regards to mandatory or precautionary quarantine. Mandatory Quarantine: Individuals who have: Been in close contact (6ft) with someone who is positive, or Traveled to China, Iran, Japan, South Korea or Italy and are displaying symptoms of COVID-19 infection, are placed on mandatory quarantine. Precautionary Quarantine: Individuals who: Had travelled to China, Iran, Japan, South Korea or Italy while COVID-19 was prevalent, but who are not displaying symptoms; or are known to have had proximate exposure to a positive person but have are not displaying symptoms are placed on precautionary quarantine.
Any Necessity for Quarantine, whether precautionary or mandatory, is determined by the state or local health department after analysis of the above criteria An employee who placed in mandatory quarantine will be placed on leave with pay, without charge to accruals, for all workdays within 14 calendar day period for the quarantine, whether healthy or displaying symptoms.
If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact one of these officers on the UUP Executive Board:
If we do not know the answers to your questions we will try to find them, and what we tell you might be out of date information by the time we get back to you.
Stay safe and healthy, Joseph Germani
Chapter President UUP Purchase College
