Legislators WANT to hear from their constituents!

Staff Council would like to encourage you to take advantage an opportunity to communicate with your legislators. Please read below. If you cannot attend in person, email is an option but please remember to do that on your own time, using your own email and equipment.

Legislators representing Fairbanks and the Interior will have a public meeting on Saturday, February 23. It will be held at the Fairbanks Legislative Information Office (1292 Saddler Way, Room 308) from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. As in Anchorage, members of the public will get three minutes each to address the legislators. If you can’t make the meeting, send your Senator and Representative an email letting them know what you would have said if you had been there.

Fall 2012 Work/Life Survey Results Part II

Staff Alliance has released part two of their analysis of the Fall 2012 Work/Life Survey results. To read the results of the statements on: facilities, workplace and security, supervisor relationships, work environment and work/life balance check out the Alliance Ally blog at www.uastaffalliance.wordpress.com

Good News from JHCC!!

The Joint Health Care Committee (JHCC) met today and the Staff Alliance representatives have reported that the committee RESCINDED their motions to end the employee opt-out and to charge a working spouse surcharge! A BIG thanks to all employees who provided your comments here, to their staff representatives and at the recent forums!

Tuition Waiver and Health Care Forums

Staff Alliance received an update TODAY from Michelle Rizk, Interim Chief Human Resources Officer for UA with IMPORTANT information for staff:

***

Employee Education Benefits Revision

We have information posted on the HR website that outlines the changes.
http://www.alaska.edu/benefits/tuition-waivers/

There have been some questions about the implementation of the UA Education Benefit. Here is some additional information. Applications for educational benefits for employees with a hire date prior to January 1, 2013 will be processed as follows:
Those employees will not need to serve a waiting period to use educational benefits. Those employees may apply for term maximum 8 credit hours tuition waived in the Spring 2013 Semester and thereafter but limited by the academic year maximum. Those employees will not need to meet the GPA requirements for the Spring 2013 Semester, but will need to meet the GPA requirement in subsequent terms.

Employees with a hire date on or after January 1, 2013 will have education benefit applications processed according to all provisions of the new regulation.

***

Health Care Forums
The dates have been set for the health care forums and we are working on an all staff communication to go out about the forums.
UAF
Thursday, January 17th

Statewide
Thursday, January 17th

UAA
Friday, January 18th

UAS
Wednesday, January 23rd

***

Share this information with your colleagues!

Changes to Tuition Waiver Benefit Signed

UPDATE: The administration has apparently begun implementing this policy change effective with the Spring 2013 semester. While the President's Office of Public Affairs announced the changes on December 21, there are still many staff and dependents who are unaware of them. Please spread the word.

****
On Tuesday, December 11 Staff Alliance was handed a revised and approved R04.06.010 Employee Education Benefit. President Gamble approved the revisions on December 6th.

The document states that these changes are effective immediately, however there is some confusion about whether or not it can or will be in place for the Spring 2013 semester. As soon as we receive an official announcement, we will post it here.

Read the 2012 Education Benefit

President Gamble Calls for More Discussion

As chair of Staff Alliance I meet regularly with President Gamble and last Friday, November 30 our discussion centered around concerns regarding the impact of no longer allowing employees to opt out of the health care benefit in FY14. I am pleased to announce that because of the concerns we’ve raised, President Gamble intends to call for more discussion and numbers on the issue. He indicated that yes, Donald Smith will begin reviewing how to make this change to the health plan but that the decision is NOT FINAL YET.

Thank you for your input! Please continue to make comments here or email your governance leaders directly on the proposed changes to our health care plan mentioned in previous posts.