Marisol contacted her union steward to help her file a grievance because our contract does not require evidence of death to use bereavement leave. At the grievance meeting, the department head reviewed our contract and agreed that death certification is not required. Therefore, he retroactively approved Marisol’s bereavement leave and restored her leave accruals.
Unionized employers are prohibited from changing working conditions – including adding new rules to access leave benefits – without negotiating those changes with our union.
In Marisol’s case, the county never negotiated a death certification requirement for employees to use bereavement leave. Using the grievance procedure, Marisol successfully held her managers accountable to the rules that were negotiated in her contract, which will hopefully avoid similar problems for her co-workers in the future.“Being part of a union gives us more rights and protections than we would have without a union. This experience convinced me to sign up as a member and become a steward because I want to learn as much as I can about our rights to protect myself and my co-workers.”
– Marisol Linares, San Benito County Member
