Officials say UA pay plan conflicts with state law
Posted on Friday, May 16, 2008
A local legislator and state official say a state agency is just following the law in not approving a University of Arkansas plan for a mix of merit and cost-of-living pay hikes for classified employees.
Consequently, classified employees - staff members whose job descriptions and pay scales are regulated by the state - at the UA will receive pay raises next fiscal year, which begins July 1, based solely on performance.
The raises will be based on a performance evaluation as prescribed by the state's Office of Personnel Management, and funds for them will total 3 percent of the current classified employee salaries.
"In theory, someone could get no raise. In theory, someone could get more than 3 percent. It depends," UA spokesman Steve Voorhies said on Thursday.
The university had intended to give each classified employee a 2 percent cost-of-living increase, then using a pool of money equal to 1 percent of the overall payroll for those employees to reward top performers.
That plan, however, would have required a change in state personnel pay plan regulations. That proposed change was not approved by the state's Office of Personnel Management, according to university officials.
"We needed to move forward with a plan to try to take care of our people in time for the board of trustees to consider it," said Tysen Kendig, the UA's chief spokesman. "The last I heard, as of Tuesday, the Office of Personnel Management had not acted on our proposal."
The board of trustees meeting is set for June 6.
Kendig referred more questions to Don Pederson, vice chancellor for finance and administration, who was out of town until Monday, according to his office.
State Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, said she had learned through some phone calls that Richard Hudson, the UA's vice chancellor for government and community relations, e-mailed the Office of Personnel Management on May 8 with the cost-of-living / merit plan and wanted to know something by today.
Kay Barnhill Terry, state personnel administrator with the Office of Personnel Management, confirmed Madison's finding. Terry said she told Hudson that her boss, Richard Weiss, director of the state Department of Finance and Administration, was not going to be back in the office until Monday.
Weiss later indicated to Hudson that Gov. Mike Beebe wants to "stick with the law"concerning the merit percentages built into Act 289, according to Madison.
Terry said the university, in its cost-of-living / merit pool proposal, had wanted approval to lower percentages in that act, which specifies the merit increase program.
The law requires that satisfactory performance gets a 1. 5 percent raise, aboveaverage performance gets a 3 percent raise and an employee who "exceeds expectations"receives a 4. 5 percent raise. The university, according to Madison, had wanted to do a 0. 5 percent raise for satisfactory performance, a 1 percent raise for above-average performance and a 1. 5 percent raise for "exceeds expectations."
Hudson, who could not be reached for comment at his office Thursday, stated in an e-mail response that he was asked to make an inquiry to the Department of Finance and Administration whether the UA could give cost-of-living increases in lieu of merit raises," but I have not been in on discussions of the legal aspects of scaling back merit percentages."
The outcome of the plan has sparked some concern among members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 965, said Steve Smith, the group's president.
"I've just gotten a couple of e-mails from classified employees about it who are not excited about the change," he said. "They were really optimistic about (Chancellor-designee G. David ) Gearhart's administration, and then the announcement that they were going to get the costof-living adjustments, and are disappointed by the sudden turn of events."
Smith said it seems the university "sure gave up awfully quickly - to propose something and then, three days later, say, ' Oh well, that won't work. ."
"I'm sure if it had been administrative salaries or hiring coaches they wouldn't have folded quite so quickly," he said.
The union was planning to have its regular meeting Thursday afternoon, and the classified pay raises were on the agenda, Smith said.
"We'll discuss what action we want to take," he said. "I would imagine it would be trying to work with the university administration to try to get it changed, if they're interested.
"It seems, to me, puzzling that we might have a state regulation that prevents cost-of-living increases for employees. I don't think anybody questions there are increases in the cost of living, with fuel and food prices as they are."
Terry, however, said all state employees should be able to get cost-of-living raises.
"We would never say, ' Don't give the COLA, '"she said.
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