IBEW Local 15 has reached an agreement with ComEd to resolve the staffing ratio issue for the Energy Technician (ET) and Senior Energy Technician (SET) positions in the Smart Meter Operations (SMO) Department (formerly known as Field and Meter Service). The staffing ratio issue dates back to the creation of the Field Billing Realignment Agreement in 1996. That package combined two different workgroups made up of clerical and physical employees and consolidated 6 different job classifications into the titles of Energy Technician and Senior Energy Technician as a means to avoid work redundancies and improve efficiencies. At the time of the signing of that agreement the workgroups were each comprised of a 60/40 split. The agreement contained language which meant to preserve job opportunities for both clerical and physical employees in the department moving forward. Since that time the ratio has fluctuated for a number of reasons, including bump-downs, layoffs and the wind-down of the AMI (Automated Meter Infrastructure) project (which saw staffing levels temporarily increased). As of July 2024, the ratio had dwindled down to about 15% clerical and 85% physical.
The settlement amends the 1996 agreement to introduce an “every-other-one” basis for filling vacancies in the ET and SET positions. This means that vacancies will alternate being offered to clerical and physical employees and guarantees that both work groups will continue to have opportunities to move into ET & SET positions. The agreement also stipulates that the company must track the offering of open ET & SET positions separately, so that the next available position is offered to the right work group; addresses the issue of locations - which for a quite some time had the company primarily posting for clerical positions only in the city of Chicago; and requires the company to declare the locations in advance of postings, sort them alphabetically and then offer the positions on the every-other-one basis to each group. Under the terms of the agreement any position that goes unfilled, will then be offered to the other group. Moving forward, in order to be considered eligible for an SET position applicants will need to have 18 months of metering experience.
The settlement resolves 3 different active grievances that were all pending arbitration, the oldest of which dates back to 2016 (including one that was set to be heard before an arbitrator this month) and provides for both clerical and physical employees to continue to have opportunities to work in the SMO department moving forward, as was the original intent of the 1996 agreement.
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