Council to Implement New Three Dispatch Rule

Update This was posted on Councils website August 2, 2012.

In compliance with the Review Officer's recommendation in his 4th interim report, the 25-day rule will be replaced with a 3-referral rule.  There will be no limit on the number of days for each referral (a referral consists of dispatches, requests and/or shapes). Once a member accumulates three consecutive referrals they will be automatically dropped from the Out of Work List (OWL). These changes will go into effect August 13, 2012.

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Informed sources say, that on August 13th the District Council will implement a change to the dispatches on the out-of-work list (OWL).

Current dispatches under the 25-day rule will be replaced with a three dispatch rule.

We are told that there will be no limit to how long a member can work on a job within the three dispatches.


Review Officer Dennis Walsh, had this to say in the Fourth Interim Report regarding the OWL.

Excerpt from report:  "Members cannot blame the out-of-work list (“OWL”) for lack of employment opportunities. Such opportunity is a function of the market place, which is simply not providing the jobs needed. The chief failing of the OWL program is that it has been transmogrified into something never intended by the parties to the Consent Decree. When the Job Referral Rules were implemented in 1994, members could work for four days before they were placed back at the bottom of the OWL. Even that method was flawed because it relied on the number of days at work rather than the number of dispatches to determine when a member would be placed at the end of the list. The increase from four days to 11 made the phenomenon of day counting obvious: if a member was about to work his or (her) 11th day on a job that was about to end, he naturally would see the opportunity presented by quitting the job and returning to his top position on the list in the hope of getting one more referral to a longer lasting job."

"Thus, I formally recommend to the District Council that no later than July 9,2012, the 25-day rule be replaced by a three-dispatch rule, whereby, without temporal limitation,a member will receive three referrals before returning to the end of the OWL. While working, a member’s position on the list is frozen. Members will not be able to refuse a dispatch but may freeze their position at any time. The change is intended to end day counting and incentivize maximum performance on jobs. It will also force members not to puff their skills or seek a referral to jobs for which they may not be qualified. The rate of dispatches should also accelerate (answering the criticism that “the list is not moving”)."

"Further, there should be separate lists for members willing to take referral calls after 6:00 p.m. and those seeking immediate dispatch opportunities. If such a member is unavailable when the District Council calls or refuses the referral, he or she would go to the bottom of the list. Refusal of a referral made to a member who desires an immediate dispatch call will also result in him or her going to the end of the list."