Staff Alliance is pleased to share the results of the efforts of our 2012/2013 Compensation Working Group. Given the increasing scrutiny of, and uncertainty about, annual staff compensation increases, the special working group was convened to look at other ways to recognize and reward the value of staff work for the university. They generated eight proposals which the Staff Alliance supports and will bring forward to system wide administration for discussion.
Please Review the 5 draft proposals already approved by Staff Alliance to forward to the administration :
Bonus system: Finalcomp_proposal2013_bonus_system
Flex Time: Finalcomp_proposal2013_flex_sched
Volunteer Leave: Finalcomp_proposal2013_volunteer_leave_time
Geo Diff: Finalcomp_proposal2013_geo_diff
Sick Leave: Finalcomp_proposal2013_sick_leave
Bonus system: Finalcomp_proposal2013_bonus_system
Flex Time: Finalcomp_proposal2013_flex_sched
Volunteer Leave: Finalcomp_proposal2013_volunteer_leave_time
Geo Diff: Finalcomp_proposal2013_geo_diff
Sick Leave: Finalcomp_proposal2013_sick_leave
Additional proposals under development:
Veteran’s Day Holiday Leave
Leave Accrual
Longevity Recognition
Veteran’s Day Holiday Leave
Leave Accrual
Longevity Recognition
As always we encourage you to comment or provide feedback on any of these proposals here, or contact your staff council representatives directly. You can find our Staff Council members' names and email addresses on the right side of this page. Thanks.
5 comments:
Thanks to the committee for its work.
No merging sick and annual leave! We've been over that before, and it is of no advantage to staff and opens the door to losing annual leave amounts. It would be nice if we owned our sick leave like faculty do.
Many interesting ideas. But please do NOT merge sick leave and annual leave. There is no option I can see that would give us the same amount of a benefit if they were merged. Most places that have only the one leave type force employees to maintain a certain amount of leave that 'can't be used' so they have a buffer for unexpected illnesses. What good is that benefit to have if you can never use it? I do like the idea to be able to convert some sick leave to annual leave - it is a benefit earned, it would be nice to have more options for it.
I really like several of the ideas put forth here. Volunteer time is a wonderful idea. I do not like the idea of merging sick leave and annual leave. I was very concerned with the comment under this options that it would address the unfair use of sick leave by some personnel - if anyone is not using sick leave properly, shouldn't this be take up by their supervisor and HR? Sick leave is to be used for medical appointments, when you or a family member you need to care for are sick or for FMLA, if its put on a time sheet for other things, the supervisor shouldn't sign off on the time sheet, or should bring it to HRs attention. I don't see the 'unfair use of sick leave' as a reason to merge the two leave types, I see it as a failure of current policies to be utilized.
Excellent work on these issues of leave! I hope I am still working here to see the option of cashing in sick leave AND converting sick leave to annual leave as I have over 1000 hours of sick leave that, most likely, I will never use and therefore will lose - this is a benefit yet I will not benefit from it! I also love the flex time option as we do this in the summer and I would love to see it happen year round - makes for much better work attitudes!
I appreciate all the work done by the Staff Compensation Working Group, but, I see some major problems with Restructuring Sick Leave. The options are justified by saying the resources already exist and utilizing them is fiscally neutral, which is simply untrue. Sick leave is funded only to the extent that it has been used in previous years. The amounts of additional usage suggested by this document would cost the university a dump truck of dollars it doesn’t have.
Option One, applying sick leave toward retirement, fails to take into account that retirement is a state, and not a university benefit. Any changes to the way PERS service is accumulated would take legislative action, not just a university decision. The reason faculty get to put unused sick leave toward retirement service is because they pay more into TRS than staff pay into PERS. They’ve “prepaid” for that service accrual.
Options two and three get back to the non-funded issue. The university would need to invent enough money to give weeks of pay for everyone who would apply, and that money has to come from somewhere. I don’t think it will be the Alaska legislature’s Operating Budget!
Option Four: I agree with the other comments. This is a bad idea. In all the times I’ve seen this issue brought to light, a single Personal Leave has never proven beneficial for staff. The university can’t pay for any more leave than it currently does, so we would receive fewer total hours of leave. By keeping the leaves separate, we get a great “insurance policy” in that unfunded sick leave. If we need it, it’s there.
Post a Comment