5/15/2003

Team addresses 10-month teacher issues

PS&T contract negotiations are moving forward, albeit at a snail's pace. The tempo is being driven by the extremely poor economic climate — historic high deficits and the politicos’ inability to agree on a budget remedy through traditional ways.

At the Wednesday, May 14 contract meeting, PEF’s team discussed the special nature of the 10-month teacher employment and Contract Article 15, which includes the benefits PSTP, PSWP and Tuition Reimbusement.

The union's Article 15 committee leadership includes Richard Collins, Carlos Garcia and Cliff Merchant, who assisted the contract team in advancing arguments in support of increased benefits.

PEF’s negotiators and the committee pressed the state to stop its practice of halting these benefits each and every time the contract expires. The dismantling and reconstruction of these important continuing education programs renders the programs meaningless to PEF members.

More importantly, members using these benefits often are mid-degree when the state ends the program — forcing them to delay their course of study or to take money out of their own pocket to complete their studies. PEF also pressed for the state to stop dismantling the structure for delivering programs each and every time the contract expires.

This employer practice is destructive as it takes more than a year for the benefits to be reinstated after a contract has been signed. In some cases, the delay after ratification can be more than a year, meaning that these important benefits will be available to our members for less than one third of the total term of the contract period.

NEXT SESSION
Negotiators will meet on Wednesday, May 28. Subjects on tap include Worker Compensation Benefits as well as Articles 14, 18, 20, 30, 36 and 41.

ASIDES
- The payment schedule which implements an arbitrator's finding that the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations (GOER) violated the PEF Contract when it failed to appropriately compensate folks in Standby / On-call status has been issued. Read more about this million dollar award at http://www.pef.org/memos.htm#Retroactive Stand By Payments

- After discussion with the Office of the State Comptroller and with GOER, lack of first time payment of Longevity Awards to some members who just retired has been corrected. As a result, the more than 100 people will not only receive the payment, they will have their pension recalculated if they include this past year as part of their final average salary calculation. Agency personnel offices have been contacted by OSC and told to submit these payments. Read more about this matter at http://www.pef.org/memos.htm#Longevity Awards for Part A Retirees