Use of the Red Book

SOP701 - Use of Outlook Red Book

Purpose:

• To define guidelines and set procedures for the use of the Outlook Red Book for Field Operations and OCC Employees. Those groups are defined as the dispatchers, controllers, road supervisors and rail supervisors.
• Allow easy access to an online Red Book for posting requests from any TriMet workstation.
• Allow easy identification of who is making the request.
• Protect the Employee from an unauthorized person altering or removing any request placed in the Outlook Red Book.

Statement of Principles:

• Field Operations employees will use the Outlook Red Book when requesting time off, canceling signed vacation, making trades, requesting to work or special requests (SD/Trades/Will work Holiday etc.) to insure that shift assignments are covered and current labor agreement language is followed.
• All posted requests carry a time stamp and name of employee making the request. To be valid, requests for single days or partial days off may be entered no earlier than one month (two months for contractually-recognized national holiday) in advance.
• Requests may be made up to one calendar month (two for holidays) in advance. Entries will be made date to date, for example, to request March 1st off, an entry may be made no earlier than February 1st at midnight.
• Requests to cancel previously signed vacation may be made at any time, but such requests will only affect cancellation of vacation. The one/two month guidelines above will still be in effect for other requests.
• When unable to make an entry personally, and on request, a Field Operations Manager/Lead or Dispatcher/Controller may enter a request on behalf of another. In this case, entries may only be made after 3:00 am on the one calendar month (two for holidays) date to date.
• The Red Book holds requests only and is not a guarantee that your request will be granted.
• Two (2) Bus Dispatchers, two (2) Rail Controllers, four (4) Rail Supervisors and four (4) Road Supervisors are contractually allowed off on any given day. Given the current supervisor staffing levels, management will allow five (5) Bus Supervisors and five (5) Rail Supervisors days off on any given day. Management will allow three (3) dispatchers and three (3) controllers to be off in a given day. In the event staffing levels decrease management reserves the right to return to the contractually required number of days off, if staffing levels increase management may determine to further increase the guaranteed number of people off per day.

Note: If you choose to take your actual birthday off please enter in Red Book.

Procedure:

Field Operations Employees:

• Make entries into the Outlook Red Book as appropriate.

Station Agents:

• Check Outlook Red Book daily for appropriate entries.
• Close Red Book for each day at 09:00 am.
• Assign work according to the requests and contract language.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Supervisors will access the Outlook Red Book from work computers. No entries from non-TriMet Computers.
• Supervisors must make their own entries or contact a Lead, Manager, Dispatchers/Controllers, or Station Agent.
• Entries must be made within the time constraints outlined under Statement of Principles above. No exceptions.
• Supervisors waiting on property to make entries one calendar month (two calendar months for holidays) in advance must remain on-site and contact the Command Center to place their name on a list to ensure they have an equal opportunity to sign in the order they arrived. If the employee is at a location other than the Ruby Junction Command Center a TriMet phone must be used to contact the Command Center. Cell phones will not be allowed. Employees may designate someone to sign for them while they are working a shift.
• Cancellation of signed vacation weeks can be done at anytime. Only station agents, Field Operations/OCC management or leads may remove a signed week(s) of vacation. Should an employee want to take part of that cancelled week as leave hours, their request will still require an entry in the red-book under the same rules as any other time-off request, which will receive the time off time-stamp in order stamp received.
• Employees may not make requests to work when vacation days are signed.
• Vacation weeks cannot be cancelled after the week of signed vacation has started.

All contract language applies to entries made in the Outlook Red Book.