Professional Practice The parties agree that nurses who have professional practice complaints will make such complaint in writing to their manager and if such complaint is not resolved then it will be considered an appropriate topic at ONA management committee, unless otherwise agreed by the parties. The parties agree that ONA members may use the ONA Professional Responsibility and Workload Report Form.
Ethical Practices ▇▇▇▇▇▇ provides adoption services ethically and in accordance with the Hague Convention’s principles of: ensuring that both domestic and intercountry adoptions take place in the best interests of children; and preventing the abduction, exploitation, sale, or trafficking of children. The Agency prohibits its employees and agents from giving money or other consideration, directly or indirectly, to a child’s parent(s), other individual(s), or an entity as payment for the child or as an inducement to release the child. If permitted or required by the child’s country of origin, the Agency may remit reasonable payments for activities related to the adoption proceedings, pre-birth and birth medical costs, the care of the child, the care of the birth mother while pregnant and immediately following birth, or the provision of child welfare and child protection services generally.
Commercial Practices Borrower assumes all risks of the acts or omissions of any LC Beneficiary or transferees of any Letter of Credit with respect to the use of such Letter of Credit. Borrower agrees that neither any LC Issuing Bank, Administrative Agent nor any Lender (nor any of their respective directors, officers, or employees) shall be liable or responsible for: (a) the use which may be made of any Letter of Credit or for any acts or omissions of any LC Beneficiary or transferee in connection therewith; (b) any reference which may be made to this Agreement or to any Letter of Credit in any agreements, instruments or other documents; (c) the validity, sufficiency or genuineness of documents other than the Letters of Credit, or of any endorsement(s) thereon, even if such documents should in fact prove to be in any or all respects invalid, insufficient, fraudulent or forged or any statement therein proved to be untrue or inaccurate in any respect whatsoever; (d) payment by any LC Issuing Bank against presentation of documents which do not strictly comply with the terms of the applicable Letter of Credit, including failure of any documents to bear any reference or adequate reference to such Letter of Credit; or (e) any other circumstances whatsoever in making or failing to make payment under any Letter of Credit, except only that an LC Issuing Bank shall be liable to Borrower for acts or events described in clauses (a) through (e) above, to the extent, but only to the extent, of any direct damages, as opposed to indirect, special or consequential damages, suffered by Borrower which Borrower proves were caused by (i) any LC Issuing Bank’s willful misconduct or gross negligence in determining whether a drawing made under the applicable Letter of Credit complies with the terms and conditions therefor stated in such Letter of Credit or (ii) any LC Issuing Bank’s willful failure to pay under any Letter of Credit after a drawing by the respective LC Beneficiary strictly complying with the terms and conditions of the applicable Letter of Credit. Without limiting the foregoing, any LC Issuing Bank may accept any document that appears on its face to be in order, without responsibility for further investigation. Borrower hereby waives any right to object to any payment made under a Letter of Credit with regard to a drawing that is in the form provided in such Letter of Credit but which varies with respect to punctuation (except punctuation with respect to any Dollar amount specified therein), capitalization, spelling or similar matters of form.
Personnel Practices Section 1. The parties agree to establish a Labor-Management Committee to consult on personnel practices. The Committee will consist of five (5) representatives selected by the County and five (5) representatives by the SEIU Local 721. The Chief Executive Officer will designate a representative from CEO/Employee Relations and Department of Human Resources who have authority to resolve issues. The Committee will meet quarterly and consult on County-wide personnel practices including, but not limited to, performance evaluations, appraisals of promotability, grievance, arbitration, appeal processes, and resolution and payment of awards.
Section 2. Dignity and Professionalism in the Workplace
1. The Union and Management are committed to working together to ensure a healthy and professional work environment free from emotional and psychological abuse and intimidation and to promote dignity for all workforce members.
2. The Union and Management agree to work together to develop a training program open to managers and SEIU Local 721 represented employees through the Workforce Development Program, the Million Dollar Training Fund and/or other sources of funding designated to promote dignity, prevent and reduce intimidation and other forms of emotional and psychological abuse in the workplace and create awareness of its negative impact.
3. Labor and Management are committed to working together to address complaints of intimidation and other forms of emotional and psychological abuse in the workplace in a timely manner.
4. The County Department of Human Resources is committed to working with the Union to develop policy to promote dignity and respect at the workplace and to prevent intimidation and other forms of emotional and psychological abuse in the workplace.
Section 3. Communication through County E-mail Recognizing that e-mail is a standard medium of business communication, the County will meet with representatives of the Union to consider the feasibility of communication with bargaining unit members through their County e-mail addresses. This workgroup will complete its work within 60 days of the Board of Supervisors’ approval of the MOU. The workgroup will present recommendations to the Board of Supervisors for any policy changes.
Section 4. Education Based Discipline Education-Based Discipline (EBD) is offered when an employee must serve a suspension from duty as a result of some type of policy violation, but rather than serving the suspension days at home with a loss of pay, some or all of those days can be substituted for a relevant training class or classes. Participation in the program is voluntary for the employee. The Personnel Practices Committee defined in Section 1 will meet to discuss expansion of EBD to all departments in the County.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT A. Both the Board and the Association encourage teachers to seek professional improvement. In order to assist teachers in extending and improving their skills the following plan will be implemented.
B. All Teachers will be encouraged to earn a Masters degree or coursework toward additional certification that is in the field of education and within a teacher's discipline, or in an area that is beneficial to the school.
C. The Board will pay teacher's expenses for undergraduate and/or graduate credits, specialty and additional endorsements under the following conditions.
1. In allocating budgeted funds priority will be given to the teachers in a “masters” program and those teachers who need to complete coursework for certification.
2. All courses must be approved, in advance, by the Superintendent. Courses for recertification purposes must be approved in advance by the certification committee and the superintendent. The teacher shall receive a written reply from the Superintendent within ten (10) days of application for course approval (See Appendix D).
3. Each teacher will be eligible for up to six (6) semester hours of credit or, if enrolled in a matriculated, organized program, 12 semester hours of credit for undergraduate will be paid if part of a graduate program or graduate courses per contract year. The Superintendent reserves the right to request intent to take courses prior to final budget preparation. Failure to communicate such intent at the time of the Superintendent’s request may jeopardize course reimbursement due to a lack of funding.
4. The administration will pay in advance the cost of the course. Presentation of evidence of satisfactory completion of the course (A grade of B or better) is the responsibility of the teacher. In the event the course is not completed or not completed satisfactorily, the teacher will refund the payment received in advance and in accordance with Appendix D – attached.
5. Teachers who resign shall not be eligible for reimbursement after the date of resignation Teachers who have been reimbursed for any course work toward securing a masters within the last two (2) years of employment shall be required to continue their service to RSU # 78 for an additional two (2) years (twenty-four months) or will be required to reimburse the district the cost associated with Masters courses taken prior to departing, Such reimbursement to the district shall be remitted via payroll deductions as arranged between the District and employee, unless the failure to continue employment is due to illness, disability, death, or reduction of position.
6. Reimbursement will only be for tuition and fees. It will not include reimbursement for mileage, books and other expenses unless the teacher is required to take the course by the administration.