Below are points from a briefing prepared for legislators on the failed State Employee contracts that stalled in the State Senate on Wednesday, December 15.
The Comp. Time/Overtime language that the Republicans were harping on isn't anything that employees do not already have in their contracts. It gave employees the right to choose between Comp. or Overtime rather than the employer, but, the rate of compensation didn't change. In fact some agencies/employee groups have had this language for several contracts.
Compensation Reserve
The 2009-11 Compensatino Reserve was constructed, presented, and passes into law with no dollars for wage increases or market adjustments for any represented or non-represented employees. The Compensation plans (Non-Rep and Fac/Ac) approved earlier, and these bargaining agreements contain no wage or market increases
The compensation Reserve that was passed was designed to account for various increased employer costs, including Health Insurance and Retirement. It is anticipated that the CR is sufficient to cover the employers biennial costs (ie., to June 30, 2011) though agency draws are affected by many factors, including vacancy rates. As an indication, FY 10 closed with a POSITIVE BALANCE of $2.7 million.
Economics
General wage adjustments FY 2010 $0
Market reserve adjustments FY 2010 $0
General wage adjustments FY 2011 $0
Market reserve adjustments FY 2011 $0
Health Insurance
Tier 1 Single $33
Family $82
Tier 2 Single $72
Family $183
Tier 3 Single $173
Family $435
Employees will pay an additional $1.3 million/annual in contributions to their health insurance premiums.
(Chicks Note--These increases would have started in January 2011. Since the contracts were not approved the increases will not go into effect until the contracts are negotiated with the new administration)
Retirement
The changes are not in the contract, but, all State employees will pay .2% or .8% toward their retirement depending on their employment category (protected, non-protected). Employee contributions are estimated at $5 million annual
Miscellaneous
Furloughs of 8 days per fiscal year will continue. This equates to a 3.08% wage REDUCTION per employee or about $50 million/annual.
TOTAL CONCESSIONS FOR 2009-2011 Biennium would have been $103.15 million.
Althought the contracts were not approved on December 15, most provisions of this agreement are already in place, except for the health insurance increases. The contract that was up for approval memorialized conditions that employees have been working under since July 2009.
So, once again the Governor-elect and his cronies are ending up costing the state money in not getting passing the contracts. THE INCREASED HEALTH INSURANCE CONTRIBUTIONS WOULD HAVE CONTRIBUTED $1.3 MILLION ANNUALLY TO THE STATE.
