Overtime Rules, Vacation Caps and Personal Days for SHARE members

Last week the HR Capsule included a notice that the Overtime Policy had changed, causing some confusion among SHARE members and their managers. Please Note: That policy did change for many employees, but the changes do not apply to SHARE members.

Overtime is one of the issues that we are discussing in contract negotiations, along with all the other policies that UMMS has changed for non-union employees over the course of our 3-year contract. UMMS is proposing all of these policy changes to SHARE. These policies may or may not change as a result of negotiations but, if they do, no changes will take place until:

1. The SHARE negotiating team reaches a Tentative Agreement with the UMMS negotiating team about all the issues on the table as a package: policies, raises, training and career development, etc.; and  
2. SHARE members vote to approve the Tentative Agreement.

The three policies that UMMS wants to change that would have the biggest impact on SHARE members are Personal Days, Overtime, and Vacation Caps. These have all changed for non-union employees, and SHARE members have sometimes been mistakenly told that the "new" policies apply to them. So, to be absolutely clear, please see the chart below:

Non-union employees	SHARE members
2 Personal Days/year Vacation Cap = 240 hours/year Overtime paid for: ·         hours over 40 in a week ·         only hours worked	3 Personal Days/year Vacation Cap = 320 hours/year Overtime paid for: ·         hours over 40 in a week  or hours over daily shift (of at least 8 hrs) ·         hours worked or paid as vacation, holiday or personal time

January Member Meetings

Join us on your lunch break to discuss SHARE-UMMS contract negotiations:

• Mon 1/13  12-2 PM   South Street, England Conference Room
• Fri 1/17     12-2 PM   LRB, Michaelson Room
• Wed 1/22 12-2 PM   Sherman Building, AS8-2072
• Thur 1/23  12-1 PM   Animal Medicine, LRB Conference Room
• Mon 1/27  12-2 PM   South Street, England Conference Room
• Tues 1/28 12-1 PM   Animal Medicine, A-Level Conference Room

If these meetings are not convenient, give us a call and we'll work with you to schedule a time and place that is more convenient. The number for the SHARE office is 508-929-4020, or you can email share.comment@theshareunion.org.

Dues Increase for 2014

SHARE bi-weekly dues will increase in January:

• The regular dues rate for 2014 will be $16.48/paycheck (the 2013 rate is $16.25)
• For employees budgeted for 20 hours/week, the 2014 rate will be $12.37/paycheck (the 2013 rate is $12.21)

Below are some Frequently Asked Questions about dues:

Why are the dues going up now, even though we haven't gotten a raise yet?

The dues increase is set by our national union, AFSCME (American federation of State, County and Municipal Employees). Any rate change is in January of each year.

How much do the dues increase each year?

The dues increase is calculated by AFSCME, based on the average raise that all 1.5 million members across the country got in the previous year. Many of AFSCME's members have had small, or no, raises over the past few years, and some have had pay cuts or unpaid furloughs. This has resulted in small, or nonexistent dues increases over the past few years, even though SHARE members at UMass Medical School were getting raises.

dues rates stayed the same from 2010 through 2012

Where do the dues go?

Most of the dues go to pay for the SHARE staff, the office rent, office supplies, mailings, etc. That money supports the work of the union here at the Medical School (and in our sister unions at UMass Memorial, Harvard University, and the Cambridge Health Alliance):

• helping members with issues at work, 
• building connections across the campuses, 
• supporting people who have been laid off, 
• distributing information about issues of importance to SHARE members (like H59), 
• negotiating contracts, etc. 

A portion of the dues goes to the national union in Washington -- they spend that money on advocating for AFSCME members as a whole, including research for things like workplace safety and lobbying for policies that help workers, like the FMLA. Support for political candidates comes from AFSCME's Political Action Committee, not from dues money. 

Report from the H59 Public Hearing

Members of the SHARE leadership team recently traveled into Boston for the open hearing on House Bill 59, Governor Patrick's proposal to change the structure of the Retiree Health Benefit for State Employees. (For background, please see this previous post about the details of the bill, and this update about the status of the bill, prior to the open hearing, which includes information about how to be involved.)

I'll do my best to provide meaningful highlights. The hearing went several hours longer than the two hour scheduled meeting time, and there were plenty of colorful details. Hundreds of opponents to H59 filled Gardner Auditorium on Beacon Hill. Although the status of the bill is not yet certain, and no one can know what subsequent proposals might target State Employee benefits in the coming years, I think SHARE members have good reasons to be optimistic that their Retiree Health Benefits will not be taken away as a result of this particular bill. To pass it, the outgoing Governor has a lot to overcome, and not much time to do it. Most members of the Committee reviewing the Bill, The Joint Committee on Public Service, expressed grave concerns about the spirit and structure of the cost-shifting involved in the bill. (Representative James Miceli likened the "shifting" to "shafting.") Though the Committee's questions were measured, and seemed genuinely to get at understanding all of the arguments involved, I didn't hear any individuals on the Committee mention any support for the bill; some explicitly stated that they would not support it as it is written. 

Members of the Committee first heard from Glen Shor, Secretary of the Executive Office for Administration and Finance, and his panel, to explain the rationale behind the bill. They explained that, unlike the State Pension program, the Retiree Health Benefit is unfunded, and that their current calculations show that the Benefit represents a 46 billion dollar liability for the state of Massachusetts. They explained that the bill is designed to bring costs in line by year nine of its implementation, and save one billion, cumulatively, by the end of that first decade. Due to the grandfathering clauses, the state would not fully realize the financial impact of the bill for roughly thirty years. (It's worth noting that there was grumbling both from the audience--and from the Committee itself--about the lack of quantifiable details regarding the proposal from the Secretary's panel. Senator Dan Wolf put it most plainly as he searched for answers about how the Bill would affect individuals, noting that Massachusetts employees are entitled to a sustainable State budget, but not at the expense of "sustainability around the kitchen table" as they calculate their home budgets.)

Many, many groups and individuals testified, representing towns, taxpayer groups, unions, and employee advocacy groups. The committee heard from UMass employees at various campuses. Shawn Duhamel, of MassRetirees, (who has visited the UMMS campus to talk with employees and members of Human Resources about H59) testified alongside the AFL-CIO. Even Ebba Hierta, the library worker who created the popular Facebook page, Stop Massachusetts Bill H59, came to explain how passage of the Bill would force her to retire from the job she loves, several years earlier than she intends . . . and at greater cost to the State, since it would be paying her benefits sooner, in addition to the wages and benefits of her replacement. 

The long conversation flushed out several concerns and criticisms. In addition to those mentioned above, these included:

• Many, many references to the broken promise to State employees who have worked diligently, and made career choices, based on assumptions that they would qualify for the Retiree Health benefit.
• Concerns that passage of the Bill could create unforeseen costs to the State in the form of litigation, resulting from that broken promise. (One such case in Rhode Island is not yet resolved. Opponents promised similar litigation in Massachusetts to block the implementation of Bill 59.)
• Worries that the structure of the Bill's implementation creates several "cliffs." In other words, the milestones and cutoffs created in the bill would make it so that employees with similar demographics, who might have had very similar lengths of service, would experience very different retirement benefits, requiring some to retire early, requiring others to work several years longer than they had planned, and simply leaving others in the lurch with no coverage whatsoever.
• Concern that the provisions of the bill rely on the Affordable Care Act to offset some of the impacts, even though the Affordable Care Act hasn't yet been fully implemented, and faces obvious challenges of its own.
• A preference to directly address the issue of skyrocketing healthcare costs, and create actual savings, rather than shifting costs from the State on to its employees.
• The need to consider more progressive ways of addressing the liability, which are unfairly weighted against lower-wage earners and women, whose caregiving obligations can sometimes make it impossible to reach the new 30-year requirement created by the Bill.

We'll keep at this, and will keep you posted. Please contact me (kirk.davis@theshareunion.org, OR 508-929-4020 x18), if you have specific questions, or would like to talk about the open hearing and H59.

Retiree Health Reform Update--Open Hearing this Thursday

SHARE members, like other employees of the State of Massachusetts, are vested in the pension after 10 years of creditable service. Currently, they are also eligible, upon retirement, for retiree health insurance. House Bill 59 proposes to change the eligibility for retiree health coverage. (Please see our previous blog post for full details of the Major Changes Proposed to the State Retiree Health benefit.)

On the plus side, it appears unlikely that the bill will be passed into law in the next few weeks before we reach the end of the current legislative session. If the issue is revived in the next legislative session (as it might be, since the benefit represents an estimated 84 billion dollar unfunded liability), the political landscape of the election year is likely to yield changes in any proposal that might be made.

That said, we want to make sure that the policy-makers know how important this is to SHARE members. We know that many of you have made important decisions about your careers and livelihoods with the idea that you would have access to the benefit as it is currently offered. Although the current version of the bill provides exclusions for State employees nearing retirement with certain amounts of service, if it were passed as-is, the effects on the Retiree Health Benefit would be dramatic and would affect most SHARE members.

House 59 is currently being reviewed by the Joint Committee on Public Service. The lawmakers on the committee have scheduled an open hearing for public comment. The hearing will be held October 31st, at 11am, in the Gardner Auditorium of the Massachusetts State House in Boston. SHARE leadership will be attending, and welcome members to join us on Beacon Hill that day.

In addition, if you would like to make a personal appeal to the Chairs of the Joint Committee, or to your local elected official, we encourage you to write to them to let them know who you are, what the Retiree Health benefit means to you, and that you're paying attention to the outcomes. 

Please call the SHARE office at 508-929-4020 x18 if you have questions or thoughts. Below you can find email addresses for the Chairs of the Joint Committee on Public Service. Online you can also find a full list of the names and contacts for the Joint Committee Members, and contact information for your local elected officials.

JOINT COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SERVICE 

SENATE MEMBERS:
William N. Brownsberger, Senate Chair: william.brownsberger@masenate.gov
Michael J. Rodrigues, Senate Vice Chair: michael.rodrigues@masenate.gov

HOUSE MEMBERS:
Aaron M. Michlewitz, House Chair: aaron.m.michlewitz@mahouse.gov
John J. Lawn, House Vice Chair: john.lawn@mahouse.gov

Agenda for October SHARE Member Meetings

1. Contract

a. How long will this take?

b. Raises:

• when, how much, and retro
• mins and maxes, structure, and merit
• evaluations

c. Other things SHARE would like to do:

• education, training and career development
• work-life-family balance
• “engagement”

d. The 3 big “time” proposals from the management team:

• Overtime
• Vacation caps
• Personal days

e. Other policies discussed so far:

• Performance Appraisals, Admin Decision, Emergency Assistance Fund, Internship, Contact with News Media, Personnel Action Approval, Transfer of Service to/from UMMS, Equal Employment Opportunity, FMLA & unpaid LOA, Employee Classifications, Inclement Weather, Work Injury

2. What Else is Going On?

a. Layoffs

• Library
• others

b. H59

• MA bill to change the retiree health benefit
• public hearing October 31

c. Ballot initiatives

• minimum wage
• paid sick time

Contract Information Meetings

Please join us on your lunch break to discuss the latest in contract negotiations with UMMS. Bring your questions, your lunch, and your friends!

Oct 2nd, 2:00-4:00       WRCH                            1st floor conference room

Oct 7th,  12:00-2:00     South Street               Sweden conference room

Oct 8th, 12:00-2:00      LRB                                 Michelson conference room  (1st floor, on the left)

Oct 9th, 12:00-2:00     Main Building             S1-123
Oct 21st, 11:30-1:30    Sherman Building     AS5-2072
Oct 23rd, 2:30-4:00     WRCH                            1st floor conference room

If these meetings do not work for you, give us a call and we'll work with you to schedule a time and place that is more convenient: 508-929-4020.