The FOSCEP office is temporarily closed due to the closure of the AFL-CIO Building in downtown Harrisburg. We will update our office status here as soon as the building is reopened.

We have not seen any additional statewide guidance today, however, we are seeing a HUGE movement towards telework, so we want to start by thanking all of the agencies who made this common-sense measure a reality.   Again, a tip-of-the-hat to the A&R stewards who have been out there with our members fielding questions and pushing the message, such a tremendous effort they have put forth; we give a thank you for the thankless job they are doing..

...that said, we still have pockets of problems...and it is time to call them out...this is a serious illness that is spreading rapidly and some directors/commissioners aren't following the advice of social-distancing and the recommendations for telework...so here is what we need to:

If you HAVE REQUESTED telework and NOT YET BEEN PERMITTED TO DO SO and your JOB IS CAPABLE of being done remotely...then we want to know:

your name
your agency
your directors name
your directors title
and your commissioners name...enough is enough, we need to call out agencies who continue to keep their employees and therefore the public at risk.

Complete the Form

Your union, ACCAFT, wants to make sure you are safe and have resources available at your fingertips!

FIRST, check this link out! https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/covid19_aft-aaup_guidanceprinciples_031320.pdf

Coronavirus: Information for educators and support staff

Get information from the American Federation of Teachers about what faculty and staff can do to safeguard against the virus, as well as what schools can do regarding preventive schoolwide and districtwide policy.

For complete information and details for higher ed. employees, see the full bulletin.

Help students understand infectious disease and find tools to protect yourself and your community on AFT’s Share My Lesson online collection of lesson plans and resources

You’ll find everything from news program videos to research projects and analyses of past epidemics. You can also visit Texas AFT  an the CDC for additional updates and resources.

Click here to see AFT President, Randi Weingarten on CNN addressing the issue of COVID-19 in schools.

Click here to get updates from the Austin Community College website.

March 18, 2020

The District changed course from its previous stance that your must report to work sites next week. Thank you to everyone who wrote to the school board! You do NOT have to report to work next week! This includes ALL instructional staff -teachers and all categories of nonclassroom teachers.

BY DEB ESCOBAR, 18 MAR 2020

It is such a pretty thing, almost looks like a tree ornament. So small it cannot be seen with the human eye, yet Coronavirus has changed our world and our lives.

Food Distribution NISD:

Beginning Wednesday, March 18, drive-through food distribution will be offered at select middle schools across the District. Food and supply kits will be provided, while supplies last, with a one kit per vehicle limit per day.

Each food and supply kit will include breakfast and lunch, non-perishable snack meals, water, and disposable trays and utensils. Kits will be distributed in the bus loop at each designated middle school.

Before we get to the new guidance letter released from DAS/OPM...I want to thank the A&R stewards who have been putting the member questions to their commissioners and keeping the pressure on agencies who continue to ignore the Governor's recommendation to allow for schedule changes and telework.  First, we need the Governor to actually mandate telework a directive!  So far, Gov. Lamont has let agency discretion guide telework, he needs to give the clear message of: telework is the best method to ensure containment of the disease and continuity of government...Governor Lamont, just make it a directive..  We have buildings with hundreds of employees and public windows...yet we remain open and refuse to honor telework.  If a world-wide pandemic isn't the obvious time to limit direct social contact and to embrace 21st century technology, then we don't know what is...the Governor is trying to contain this disease and some agencies are refusing to help...this is reckless...make the directive to buy laptops and implement the obvious...more on this later.

From our shop, A&R is trying to respond to everyone who has called and emailed as well as push for the common sense measures...and of course, keep you updated and conduct normal business as well (side note: congrats to the DOL Unit Managers who are now part of A&R as a result of a win at the Labor Board last Friday!  Further, congrats to DOI and DOT employees who also successfully won their bids to unionize over the past couple of weeks!  We are trying to get your impact bargaining done and submitted to the legislature, clearly some obstacles though).

This is the latest guidance released from DAS/OPM.  It includes a helpful Q&A. 

The synopsis so far:

Sick with Coronavirus, caring for someone sick with Coronavirus, or Coronavirus-like symptoms: stay home, 14 calendar days paid leave  LOPD , telework if possible
Returned from: Iran, South Korea, China, Europe: stay home, 14 calendar days paid leave LOPD, telework if possible
Child/Elder care closing:  stay home, 14 calendar days paid leave LOPD, telework if possible
Transportation impossible:stay home, 14 calendar days paid leave LOPD, telework if possible
Compromised Immune System:  submit a doctor's directive to stay home...then stay home, 14 days, telework.
 

All others: report to work, telework, or use accrued time.

There have been numerous informational documents, so we are attempting a quick synopsis of the guidance and Q&A...this is not a substitute for actually reading the latest guidance...but a quick run-down of some of the items contained within them.

• The 14 days are calendar days and run consecutively starting from the day you first access them.
• If you are under the "14 days paid leave" but teleworking....this means give as many hours as you can under your normal time codes and the balance of the time is LOPD.
• Telework is NOT limited to 50% of the week.
• Titles not previously allowed for Telework are now allowable
• If you are declared essential...this does NOT override the above directives and this does NOT mean that you can't telework...essential designation is not a way of ignoring health concerns to ensure continuity of government, telework is the way you ensure continuity of government and maintain health.
• To request telework under these circumstances: the normal paperwork can be by-passed, just a brief statement of duties and a proposed schedule is all that is needed.
• If you wish to create "odd" hours during the crisis, this is allowed.  If you only need to provide childcare coverage until 1pm, you can come in to the office at 2pm and work later.
• HEP requirements timelines are being extended (not sure exactly what this means yet, but for those trying to meet their 2019 requirements, the timeline before removal has been extended).
• If both parents are state employees, only one at a time can access the 14 days for child/elder care.
• Taking temperature of staff: only in a healthcare setting...please don't try to play doctor at your office, unless you are a doctor.

UPDATE MARCH 19, 2020

Yesterday President Wendy Doromal signed a Memorandum of Understaning (MOU) with the District. No teacher or any instructional personnel will be required to report to a school or worksite on Monday or until the Governor announces that the schools will reopen.  Please see this link for the MOU.  Thank you to every teacher who took the time to write to their school board member and the legislators. We are stronger together!

On behalf of the 2,800 state employees represented by A&R, we made a demand to the Governor today to close non-essential functions and release A&R employees on paid leave until this pandemic is contained.

We will continue to push this position as this crisis continues to dig deeper.  The Governor will need to face the reality, that our workplace conditions put us all at increased risk of infection for not only ourselves, but the families we go home to.