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Publication of the State Employees Association of North Carolina • May 2008 • Vol. 26 No. 3 • Circulation 55,000
Time for General Assembly to Put Public Services First Pay, Retirement and Collective Bargaining Up this Session By Erica Baldwin and Suzanne Beasley Malysz With the return of lawmakers to Raleigh for the General Assembly “short session” on May 13, it is time to focus on the legislative process and SEANC’s role in protecting the public services you provide.
State budget projections look promising with revenues nearly $125 million ahead of forecast, according to a March 18 report by the General Assembly’s Fiscal Research Division. This means legislators should have adequate funding for state employee raises and retiree cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs).
Pay SEANC secured the largest back-to-back pay raises in nearly two decades — 5.5 percent in 2006 and 4 percent in 2007. This year the association hopes to build on that success to ensure state employees’ pay is more competitive with market rates. According to an Office of State Personnel report, state employee turnover costs are $362 million annually, more than the cost of a 5 percent pay raise. As employees’ pay becomes more competitive, the state will be able to retain experienced employees and reduce turnover costs — a benefit to all North Carolina taxpayers.
Health Care Though SEANC lobbyists do not expect many State Health Plan issues to come up during the short session, they will continue to block any efforts to increase costs for employees and retirees. As the Indemnity Plan phases out at the end of June, all health plan members will begin using the Preferred Provider Organization network.
Retirement SEANC will continue to work for retiree benefits, including a 4.1 percent COLA and an increase in the retirement formula to 1.84 percent. Additionally, SEANC will persist in its efforts to increase the employer retirement contribution, which has been much lower than employees’ required 6 percent contribution since 1999. Introduced last year, SEANC will work to get House Bill 1806 passed this session. If enacted, the pension system investment decisions would be made by a committee or board, not by the state treasurer alone, who currently serves as the sole fiduciary. Presently North Carolina is one of only
Photo by erica Baldwin
“I’m proud of the budget accomplishments for state employees in last year’s budget. However, there is a lot more work to do to protect and advocate for our state employees — North Carolina’s future depends on it,” said Rep. Tricia Cotham (D-Mecklenburg), a member of SEANC District 38.
Leonard Reynolds, SEANC Western Region representative to the Executive Committee, talks about state employee and retiree concerns with Sen. Steve Goss (D-Watauga) during MAT Lobby Day on May 8, 2007, in Raleigh.
three states with a sole fiduciary. The other two states, New York and Connecticut, implemented safeguards to remove the opportunity for a sole trustee to choose money managers for personal or political gain.
Collective Bargaining SEANC will work toward its goal of repealing G.S. 95-98, which prohibits public employee collective bargaining. See the Counselor’s Comments on page 6 for more.
Workplace Protections Attacks on state employees’ workplace protections come up unexpectedly each session, often tucked into obscure bills. In recent years SEANC fought back legislation to eliminate longevity pay for career state employees, protected priority re-employment status for reduction-in-force employees and helped defeat an attempt to remove State Personnel Act (SPA) protections from thousands of Department of Transportation employees. SEANC is on alert that the university system is attempting to remove protections from their SPA employees this session and SEANC is working to turn back this effort.
What You Can Do Sign up for Member Action Team (MAT) training and attend MAT Lobby Day on June 24 to talk to your legislators face to face about the importance of pub-
lic services. Contact the SEANC Member Action Department at 800-222-2758 for more information. The effort of our well-prepared MAT grassroots lobbyists was a huge success last year. ebaldwin@seanc.org, sbeasley@seanc.org or 800-222-2758
What’s Inside Primary Endorsements pg. 3
May Convention Preview pgs. 7-10