I would like to take this opportunity to clarify what the following section to the bargaining agreement means to corrections officers in layman terms.
This section has nothing to do with guaranteed vacation, putting in for a day off, or any other forms of leaves. It simply allows for an employee to apply well in advance for leave for special events. Example: If your sister is getting married in September you can turn in a leave slip in January requesting the day off. The timekeeper must keep a file for each month of the calendar. Your leave slip would go into the September file and be placed there in the order in which September requests were made.  This means you would be the first employee requesting that date off and would make it easier for you to get that day off.

This has NOTHING to do with you requesting other leave. The three slips in this special file have nothing to do with this.  You can still request next Tuesday off and it is not counted as one of the three slips. This only pertains to requests beyond the month the timekeeper is currently working on.
If there is an institution that is going above and beyond accepting three slips we commend them for this and encourage they continue this practice. However, most institutions in the state have been handling this by denying the leave and telling the employee to apply at a later date closer to the time requested off. This puts a stop to this practice and benefits the employee.

If you have questions please call us at 866-346-6262 for further clarification if needed.

Thank you,
Gary Gross, Executive Director, MOCOA

Section 11.9 Annual and Compensatory Leave
a) Applications for annual or compensatory leave for that calendar year may be submitted at any time during the calendar year, beginning January 1st of that year. In this circumstance, leave must be earned before it can be requested.
b) A reasonable effort shall be made to grant annual or compensatory leave when requested, but granting leave is subject to approval of the shift supervisor based on the needs of the department.
c) Employer agrees to maintain a pending file for future leave applications each month of the year and to file and to consider leave applications by the order in which they received them.
d) The employer agrees to accept and file no more than three leave applications from an employee at any point in time.
e) Such requests will be responded to as early as is practical but no later than fourteen (14) days prior to the beginning of the leave requested either approved or denied.
f) If an employee requests leave fewer than fourteen (14) days prior to the requested leave date, the supervisor will approve or deny the leave as soon as practicable.