Recently the City of Riverside sent you a correspondence of its decision to extend paid administrative leave compensation to employees required to stay home up until 5-14-20. While employees appreciate this gesture there are challenges identified in this correspondence that need to be addressed. The City of Riverside also communicated to employees that anyone not called back to work on 5-15-20 would be furloughed. To be clear, SEIU Local 721 has not agreed to furlough any represented members and we intend on addressing this matter expeditiously and decisively.
SEIU Local 721 has already requested to meet and confer over the City’s intent to furlough employees after 5-15-19. Your union is of the position that such decision cannot be unilaterally implemented without engaging in good faith discussions with SEIU.
We are continuing to monitor the financial situation of the City and intend on representing the best interests of SEIU members.
In addition, we would like to dispel a lot of the rumors regarding layoffs that you may have heard. Pursuant to your contract (https://www.seiu721.org/contract/city-riverside-general-unit.php or https://www.seiu721.org/contract/city-riverside-solid-waste-division.php), the City is obligated to provide 30 day notice to SEIU General Unit members ahead of any decision to lay off employees and are required to meet and confer with Refuse Unit members before implementing a layoff decision. Thus far, SEIU local 721 has not received such notice indicating the City intends on moving forward with this course of action.
These are challenging times and we look forward to working with the City in an attempt to resolve these issues. As this situation progresses, we will update you with the most relevant information as soon as possible.
The impact of this pandemic is not confined just to the people, who continue to face hardships due to a blow on their source(s) of earning since industrial growth across the globe is witnessing a slump which might take them a couple of years to recoup from.