Common use of Covering Additional Stations Clause in Contracts

Covering Additional Stations. (a) Employees will not be required to cover more than one extra single officer station and only for periods of paid leave at that extra station or to enable officers to attend training or for other reasons as agreed between the Service and the QPUE. No overtime will be payable for duty performed in these circumstances during the normal rostered hours at that officer’s home station. However, overtime will be payable for all duty performed in the neighbouring division occurring outside of ordinary hours or on rest days. The continuous period for covering arrangements should not exceed 16 weeks unless justified. When a Two Officer Station has only one officer, that officer will not be required to cover any other station (i.e. single officer station) where the appointed officer at that station is absent. (b) The Buddy System occurs when neighbouring divisions work harmoniously together to obtain a balance between the operational requirements of the Service and officers’ work/life balance. Neighbouring stations may include stations across patrol group, district and regional boundaries. All parties recognise the importance that the informal “Buddy System” plays at all one and two officer stations and that this arrangement enables flexibility and improved productivity. (c) Subclause (a) above will not apply where the Buddy System is in operation whereby one or two officer stations combine for the purpose of enabling the officer/s attached to them to have one weekend in four free of all calls within their respective division on a rotational basis. (d) It is acknowledged that subclause (a) above will not apply where other local arrangements agreed to by both officer/s and management are applied in exceptional circumstances.