National Women’s Law Center and Union Agree to COVID-19-Related Stipends, Staff Protections, Safety Measures 

 
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NWLC United is proud to announce that its Bargaining Committee negotiated and finalized a COVID-19 memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NWLC Management in early April. 

After hearing clearly from our Unit that COVID-19 safety measures are a top priority, we came to agreement with management to outline a shared goal of both parties to develop and maintain appropriate practices and measures designed to avoid the spread of disease in the workplace and to protect the health, safety, and well-being of employees and their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

During this process we established that both the Union and Management share a commitment to ongoing communication, collaboration, and continuous learning in this uncertain period so that workplace policies and practices can be temporarily adjusted in light of evolving standards and recommendations for addressing COVID-19, and they can build on this experience to address future infectious disease outbreaks. 

We look forward to a similarly productive process as we begin bargaining our CBA.

The main components of our MOU are: 

  • Stipends: NWLC United was able to secure both one-time and recurring stipends for Unit members through the end of the year in recognition of the increased costs borne by staff during the COVID-19 pandemic and mandatory work from home.

  • Protections for term-limited staff:  NWLC United has in our unit several staff who are on term-limited contracts. To help ensure that these unit members were not left without support if their terms ended during the pandemic, we were able to bargain some short-term job protection for these staff. 

  • Safety: NWLC United was able to codify in the MOU that no one will be required to work at the NWLC office until vaccines are widely available. 

  • Discipline: NWLC United was also able to codify that, in the absence of a CBA grievance process, unit members would have some protection from being penalized due to work-from-home technology-related challenges.

 
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