Employee pay plan changes begin to take effect at UW

This summer, the state’s Joint Committee on Employment Relations approved raises for most UW–Madison faculty and staff. Pay changes already have begun appearing on many employee earnings statements.

A major action by the state Legislature was the approval of a contract with the Wisconsin State Employees Union (WSEU) for the 2003-05 biennium. For more than two years, the state has been negotiating with WSEU, and an agreement finally was reached in June, says Mark Walters, director of UW–Madison’s Classified Human Resources Office.

The new contract included a 1 percent increase for WSEU members effective June 12, and the increases began appearing on paychecks that were distributed Aug. 18.

The major sticking point for WSEU negotiations was the implementation of mandatory employee contributions toward health insurance. Other UW employees (e.g., non-represented classified and unclassified) began contributing toward the same tier program at the end of 2003. Because the WSEU employees had not been contributing to this program, it was agreed that the back pay generated from the 1 percent increases scheduled for implementation at the beginning of the fiscal year (July 2003) would instead be used to eliminate the need for employees to personally submit back payments.

Also implemented was a personnel management survey in the administrative support area, which covered more than 800 UW–Madison employees, says Walters. The survey put into place a new classification titling structure that resulted in pay changes for some employees due to their positions moving up via the survey.

“The ramifications of the survey and pay provisions within the WSEU contract are just now being felt,” says Walters. “People are seeing the increases and title changes in their earnings statements they received in the last two weeks.”

With the 2003-05 contract approved, the state will return to negotiations with WSEU on the 2005-07 biennium contract. There are about 3,500 WSEU-represented staff members at UW–Madison.

The Legislature also approved the pay plan for unclassified and non-represented classified staff. The state approved a 2 percent increase in July 2005, a 2 percent increase in July 2006 and a 1 percent increase in April 2007, says Walters. The increases will be across the board for non-represented classified staff.

Faculty and staff increases, however, are merit-based (based on an average of 2 percent), not across the board. Individuals will be notified of the amount of their increase after the Board of Regents acts on Sept. 9, says Steve Lund, director of the Academic Personnel Office.

Pay adjustments for non-represented classified staff will appear on Sept. 1 earnings statements. Adjustments for unclassified staff will appear on Sept. 30 earnings statements, says Lund.

The Joint Committee on Employment Relations also approved an Office of State Employment Relations recommendation to hold unclassified and non-represented classified employee health insurance contributions steady for 2006, but raising the contributions $5-$25 per month (depending on type of coverage and provider) in 2007.

The committee approved the changes for all faculty and staff, except for 34 individuals in the senior executive group (the only UW–Madison positions in this classification are chancellor and provost). The committee won’t consider pay adjustments for senior executives until the Board of Regents reports on its review and action on current UW System pay raises and employment practices. The regents have announced that they would review employment practices at their September meeting, with a report planned for their October meeting.