UPE met with the Court to discuss policies for approving Transcript Preparation Time (TPL) for Court Reporters.
Under the terms of our new collective bargaining agreement, UPE and the Court stipulated that TPL will be treated exactly like a vacation slot. In practice, however, some TPL requests were denied despite there being open vacation slots. For example, currently, Court Reporters have four vacation slots every day. If two people request vacation slots on a day, that means two slots are open for TPL (or vacation) requests. The Court is now in agreement that TPL requests should not be denied if there are open vacation slots. The Court agreed to go through past denied TPL requests and grant them if they meet this criteria.
UPE asked if TPL requests would be treated the same as vacation requests when it comes to the wait list/first denied list. The Court responded that requests will be placed on the first denied list along with vacation requests and granted in the same way as vacation requests. Partial-day requests will also be treated in the same way that vacation requests are handled. If four slots are filled and circumstances change for that day, the Court will go down the waitlist and use its discretion to grant more time off, if possible.
The Court informed UPE that the Judicial Council and HR have worked out a payroll code for TPL. The new Phoenix code will be 4516, starting January 1, 2025. Currently, the Phoenix code is Union Time - General with an explanation it’s TPL. That will continue until January 1, 2025.
The Court stated that Court Reporters will receive an email from payroll around December 16, 2024, with a lot more information about TPL/payroll.
Please note that the 16 TPL bank hours will appear on pay stubs after January 1, 2025, just like our bank for floating holidays.
Here is the contractual language regarding TPL:
9.02 TRANSCRIPT PREPARATION TIME – COURT REPORTERS
a. All regular full-time Court Reporters shall receive up to sixteen (16) hours of paid release time per calendar year for the purpose of transcript preparation.
b. Regular part-time Court Reporters shall receive this benefit on a prorated basis.
c. Release time shall be taken in the same manner and under the same rules as vacation leave. Leave time used on the same day cannot be combined with release time or to make a full day off.
d. Approval for release time will be at the sole discretion of Court Management based on operational needs.
e. Authorized release time must be reported in the Court’s payroll timekeeping system.
f. Any unused release time shall not roll over from year to year and will not be cashed out.
UPE would like to give a special THANK YOU to your negotiating team and subject matter experts, Liz Teklinsky, Suzanne Burgos, and Katherine VanGrinsven. Without their insights and expertise, this would not have been possible.