Common use of Relief Coverage Clause in Contracts

Relief Coverage. There are two ways to cover vacancies, either with a voluntary or mandatory coverage system. A voluntary system requires no one to be forced into work or on-call to cover for vacancies. Under the new shift schedules, the Division would like to maintain a voluntary system for covering vacancies (i.e., those who want overtime volunteer to work and those who do not want to work overtime do not have to work). However, for a voluntary coverage system to work the employee at a plant must work together and be willing to come into work occasionally on their day off (at an overtime rate of pay). Should this voluntary system fail to provide adequate coverage for vacancies, then the Bureau reserves the right to assign employees to cover vacancies using current practices or implement a mandatory relief system. Note that the voluntary system fails when employees have to work 18 consecutive hours to cover a vacant shift. Every effort will be made to prevent an employee from working 18 consecutive hours. Vacancies on 12-hour shift, in many cases, are filled by employees who come into work on their days off. Since it takes additional time to contact an employee and have them commute into work, employees on 12-hour shift schedules are expected to give at least 2 hours notice before the beginning of an assigned shift for any absence. In the event there are more employees wanting to fill vacancies than there are vacancies, then an overtime equalization policy will be used to distribute the overtime. The goal of this policy is to ensure that every employee has opportunity to fill overtime vacancies. One way to accomplish this is to first make sure that all employees have an opportunity to volunteer for vacancies and in competitive situations, give priority to employee with the least amount of overtime.

Relief Coverage. There are two ways to cover vacancies, either with a voluntary or mandatory coverage system. A voluntary system requires no one to be forced into work or on-call to cover for vacancies. Under the new shift schedules, the Division Bureau would like to maintain a voluntary system for covering vacancies (i.e., those who want overtime volunteer to work and those who do not want to work overtime do not have to work). However, for a voluntary coverage system to work the employee at a plant must work together and be willing to come into work occasionally on their day off (at an overtime rate of pay). Should this voluntary system fail to provide adequate coverage for vacancies, then the Bureau reserves the right to assign employees to cover vacancies using current practices or implement a mandatory relief system. Note that the voluntary system fails when employees have to work 18 consecutive hours to cover a vacant shift. Every effort will be made to prevent an employee from working 18 consecutive hours. Vacancies on 12-hour shift, in many cases, are filled by employees who come into work on their days off. Since it takes additional time to contact an employee and have them commute into work, employees on 12-hour shift schedules are expected to give at least 2 hours notice before the beginning of an assigned shift for any absence. In the event there are more employees wanting to fill vacancies than there are vacancies, then an overtime equalization policy will be used to distribute the overtime. The goal of this policy is to ensure that every employee has opportunity to fill overtime vacancies. One way to accomplish this is to first make sure that all employees have an opportunity to volunteer for vacancies and in competitive situations, give priority to employee with the least amount of overtime.