Escambia County, PBA reach tentative agreement on contract items except Day‑of‑Rest provision

Escambia County and representatives of the PBA met Jan. 16 for a continued bargaining session and reported a tentative agreement on all proposed contract language except Article 17, which deals with the day‑of‑rest (DOR) calculation and work‑period/overtime rules.

The tentative agreements cover cleanup language in Article 13, holiday and funeral‑leave language, and incorporation of the most recent MOU language into the appendix; the parties said they would return to Article 17 for further analysis and membership discussion. "This is everything except for 13 and 17 in there," said Vicki Palm, HR director, as negotiators reviewed the draft language.

Why it matters: Article 17 addresses how the jail’s work period is defined and how overtime is calculated — issues that affect pay for corrections staff and the county’s staffing costs. Negotiators discussed whether to maintain the DOR while using a 28‑day FLSA work period (in which overtime begins after 160 hours) or to move to alternate pay‑period models. Palm summarized the county’s position on the calculation: "You have to do the 160, which is where you earn the DOR, and then the overtime is after 160," referring to the 28‑day cycle under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Article 13 and related language: Negotiators said Article 13 largely reverts to previously proposed language while keeping a provision (identified in the draft as subsection j) allowing up to 750 hours of sick leave to be converted under specified conditions. Participants also noted cleanup in sections numbered 1305, 1309 and 1310 addressing funeral leave caps and holiday practice. Palm said the changes are “all clean up” to reflect current practice.

Day‑of‑Rest/work period debate (Article 17): The core dispute centered on whether the DOR can be preserved while aligning pay calculations with the FLSA 28‑day work period used for corrections staff. County negotiators argued that to ensure correct overtime payments the work period needs to be the 28‑day cycle with overtime paid after 160 hours. They presented a spreadsheet calculation showing how certain leave hours and conversions currently interact with the DOR and the 160‑hour overtime threshold (one negotiator noted a computed total of about 159.25 hours in an example). County staff also raised operational and fiscal concerns, saying maintaining the current status quo has cost the county for backfills and overtime.

Union and membership process: PBA representatives acknowledged the county’s concerns but emphasized that any change to Article 17 would require membership review and ratification. Negotiators asked county staff for modeling showing how pay would differ under the alternative schedules. "If you could provide that to us — how that might play out for the membership — that may be helpful in terms of coming to a decision as to what we can ratify," one union negotiator said.

Next steps and administrative items: Parties said they would tentatively agree (TA) to all articles except Article 17 and schedule another session to continue bargaining on the remaining item. Palm said she would obtain signatures on the agreed pages and "send you some analysis on 17th and then schedule another day." The county also agreed to provide pay‑model data showing the effects of different work‑period options on membership pay.

Votes at a glance: No formal votes were taken in the meeting. Negotiators reported a tentative agreement on all draft articles other than Article 17, which remains open for further analysis and membership consideration.

Ending: Negotiators set the follow‑up actions — county staff to supply analysis and to reconvene — while leaving Article 17 open so the union can consult its members and the parties can review pay‑modeling and operational impacts.