Agreement reached on Recovery Conservation Corps training program

May 27, 2009 - A letter of agreement was signed by ODNR and OCSEA as well as the Workforce Investment Board regarding a summer youth employment program. The deal guarantees that Recovery Conservation Corps (RCC) workers cannot displace existing ODNR bargaining unit employees.

Additionally, any employee on layoff from the same or substantially equivalent job classification as an RCC worker will be offered recall to work prior to an RCC worker beginning work in an ODNR facility. ODNR workers will not be responsible for the supervision of RCC workers.

RCC workers will be paid wages initially set at $7.39 per hour, and crew leaders will be paid an initial $10.00 per hour. This national program is funded by federal stimulus dollars.

In a joint memo to ODNR workers, Steve Kullman, OCSEA/ODNR Assembly President, and Bret Benack, Labor Relations Administrator, wrote that this program is intended to “get Ohioans, and all Americans, back to work and to alleviate the economic downturn that has taken such a toll on all of us.”
The two stressed that the program is not a plan to supplant the existing workforce in ODNR.

In April, it was announced that the federal stimulus money-funded program would bring around 20,000 youth workers, ages 16-24, to the agency to pick up litter, do landscaping, pull weeds, and other duties. The youth will be those in need of employment and from low-income backgrounds.

It is the hope of both labor and management that workers will be sure to exhibit professionalism to the RCCs, just as they would to one another or anyone in the public.

See Related

ODNR Assembly discusses youth work program, convention

Union ODNR Toolbox

OCSEA Biennial Convention

Contract Resources

Ohio Recovery Website: State of Ohio American Recovery and Reinvestment Act