SPO issued a new Inclement Weather Memo on September 25th, 2023.
It changed the procedure for inclement weather for non-essential employees: follow schools for delays, but refer to the SPO website for closures.
Like many of you, our Unionâs Steward team was incredibly concerned with the new policy. We immediately reached out to SPO for a meeting to discuss these changes and on October 6, our District Representative Jana Smith-Carr and I met with Acting SPO Director and General Counsel Dylan Lange to express our concerns about the new SoNM Inclement Weather Policy. Hereâs an overview.
The meeting was just OK â per our contract (Article 18, Section 7), we don’t have the right to bargaining the inclement weather âguidance memorandum,â which is what we all received from SPO in September. However, Acting Director Lange assured us he would be in touch about the issues and was open to hearing feedback and we agreed to meet again after the first weather event to discuss issues and areas for improvement.
A few answers to our questions:
- How/when will SPO be notifying workers? They hope to notify by 6:00 AM but are committed to notifying by 8:00 AM at the latest. We let them know that this doesn’t work for a lot of our members. There will be a big red or yellow banner on the SPO homepage (www.spo.state.nm.us) that will announce the closures.
- How is the decision being made? SPO has identified a list of 40 cities where there are field offices. They will be getting on-the-ground info from DOT and collaborating with school districts to make the decisions. Acting Director Lange assured us multiple times that their priority is safety.
- What leave should people use when schools are closed but offices are open and they have to stay home with kids? Per most agenciesâ policies, annual leave must be requested in advance and sick leave canât be used for non-medical reasons. Acting Director Lange said he would get back to us on this, he didnât know.
- What about virtual school during closures? If a schoolâs buildings are closed, that is considered a closure, regardless of whether the students are required to do virtual school at home. So, when they are assessing whether state offices are closed in that area, they will be considering a âvirtual schoolâ call as a building closure and take that into account.
- How about during school holidays when we normally have an issue getting offices closed? This policy should rectify that issue because SPO will have the ability to issue closures separately from the schools.
Finally, Acting Director Lange assured us that SPO would be urging HR managers to be open to case-by-case issues â they do not want people on the roads when they are icy and dangerous. I used the example of a coworker of mine, who lives in a separate county from our offices in Los Alamos, but has to drive through the Jemez Mountains to get to our office. They said they are directing HR to use their discretion in situations like these and grant admin leave as needed.