Employee Organization Access Policy
Western State College of Colorado Employee Organization Access Policy
State Personnel Board Rules regarding relationships with employee organizations, include the following:
Board Rule 1-18. Employees have the right to associate, self-organize, and designate representatives of their choice. Membership in any employee organization or union is not a condition of state employment. No employee may be coerced into joining or not joining and solicitation of members shall not occur during work hours without the approval of the appointing authority. The employee’s representative may confer, with prior consent from the supervisor, on employment matters during work hours. Such conferences should be scheduled to minimize disruption to productivity and the general work environment. A supervisor’s consent shall not be unreasonably withheld.
Board Rule 9-3. Discrimination against any person is prohibited because of race, creed, color, gender (including sexual harassment), sexual orientation, national origin, age, religion, political affiliation, organizational membership, veteran’s status, disability, or other non-job related factors. This applies to all employment decisions.
This Access Policy addresses the protocol for employee organization access to Western State College buildings and grounds to provide general information, to solicit members or to meet otherwise with groups of state classified employees.
This policy does not apply to the relationship between a supervisor and an employee where the employee seeks permission to confer with his or her employee organization representative during work hours. It does not affect either the employee’s or the supervisor’s respective duties to reasonably balance access and productivity in any given situation in accordance with Board Rule 1-18.
For purposes of this policy, “employee organization” includes the term “union” and has the same meaning as “labor organization” in C.R.S. 24-34-401(6) (Colorado Antidiscrimination Act) and “employee organization” in C.R.S. 24-50-104 (1)(b) and (total compensation statute).
1. Notice: Employee organizations shall contact the WSC Human Resources Office at least one full working day (Monday – Friday) prior to their desired date of campus access.
Human Resources Office contact information:
e-mail: kgailey@western.edu
phone: 970-943-3140
address: 600 N. Adams, Taylor Hall 209
Gunnison, CO 81231
2. Locations: Generally, employee organizations will have reasonable access to outdoor campus walkways, parking lots, employee break rooms, building entrances and exits. This list of areas may be modified on a case by case basis depending on college business necessity on the desired access date. If the college needs to modify locations, the Human Resources staff will communicate this information to the employee organization representative prior to his/her arrival on campus. Employee organization representatives will generally be excluded access to building interior hallways, guest areas, the library and student classrooms, labs, gyms or student residence & dining halls.
3. Meetings: The College permits conference room, classroom or meeting room reservations for employee organization meetings with groups of employees, provided such room usage does not conflict with the college’s business needs. Employee organizations may reserve rooms by contacting the college union front desk (for union meeting rooms) or the conference services office (for the Aspinall-Wilson Center or classrooms) after giving the required advance notice.
4. Employees: Subject to the limitations of this policy, employees are free to meet with employee organization representatives and participate in employee organization activities during non-work hours and lunch or meal periods in the areas described above, or as modified (refer to paragraph 1). Employees are free to meet with employee organization representatives during non-work hours at any off campus location.
5. Professional standards: Representatives of employee organizations granted access to the college campus shall not disrupt the work or educational operations of the college and shall conform to safety and security regulations. Employee organization representatives shall respect the request of any employee who does not wish to engage in a discussion or accept literature.
6. Complaints: Submit complaints or suggestions pertaining to this policy to the Human Resources staff. Complaints and/or suggestions must be in writing.
7. E-mail: E-mails from employee organizations to classified employees containing information about the organization, events, meetings and news sent to the employees’ work e-mail accounts shall be subject to the following restrictions:
· Volume (broadcast) e-mails, defined as e-mails of broad general interest to multiple state employees not concerning a specific employment matter between an employee and his or her representative or other specific topic related to a small group of individuals, must be delivered after 6:00 PM.
· Volume e-mail content must be informative and factual in nature. No political endorsements or opposition, and no e-mails commenting on managers, administration officials or other employee organizations will be sent through the state e-mail system.
· E-mails may not contain attachments.
· A state employee organization may only send one volume e-mail per month.
· Employees may opt out of an employee organization’s e-mail list at any time and the employee organization must promptly respect those requests. All e-mails must contain a statement notifying state employees that they can choose not to receive future e-mails from the sender organization along with directions for how state employees can opt out.
Failure to comply with these e-mail procedures may result in electronically blocking all future broadcast e-mail of the non-compliant organization as an improper interference with public business. The college does not guarantee that employee organization e-mail will not be captured in spam-filters.
