May 2021 • Vol. 38, Issue 4
THE
REPORTER
State Employees Association of North Carolina
SEANC standing up for UNC System employees SEANC is the only organization standing up for UNC System employees against House Bill 243. This bill gives UNC System President the authority to implement temporary salary cuts for employees to offset budget shortfalls or other reductions in revenue at any of the UNC campuses. The bill does not limit the use of pay cuts to only COVIDrelated situations. The bill passed the Senate with amendments that would raise the threshold of salary affected to $65,000 and above and limit the cut to 10% of salary rather than 20%. The House voted not to concur with those changes, meaning a
conference committee will hash out the discrepancies. SEANC District 25 Chairman James Holman spelled out SEANC’s concerns about the bill in a letter to the editor of The Daily Tar Heel on April 21. Ironically, at a meeting in late April the UNC Board of Governors discussed an incentives plan that could result in 20% bonuses for chancellors. Some of these chancellors make more than $600,000 a year already, yet the system is telling legislators it needs to cut employee salaries to deal with a budget crunch! The state has a $4 billion revenue
surplus this year and more federal relief funding coming that can be used to offset budget problems. The system should manage its budget and the General Assembly should properly fund the System. The UNC System may see an exodus of faculty with the threat of a pay cut looming overhead. University employees were left out of pay increases from the last biennium budget stalemate. The threat of pay cuts adds insult to injury. SEANC will not relent until this provision is removed from the bill. After a year on the front lines of the pandemic, UNC employees cannot afford a pay cut and should not have to.
Personnel records bill amended, problems remain SEANC successfully lobbied to amend parts of a Senate bill that would have violated state employees’ Constitutional rights to due process pertaining to personnel records. Advocates of Senate Bill 355, led by the North Carolina Press Association, hoped to open state employee personnel records, including parts that may contain false allegations, to unnecessary public scrutiny. In its original form, Senate Bill 355 would have allowed anyone full access to a state employee’s personnel file including any comments from supervisors about disciplinary actions that may not be true. This would have been a violation of employees’ constitutional rights.
SAVE THE DATE
Employees have the right to due process when accused of a violation. Opening personnel files to the public would create a vulnerability for employees who may be in the middle of a grievance or appeal. “This comes down to Constitutional rights,” SEANC Executive Director Ardis Watkins told the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 27. “In this case, the government is the employer. You can’t legislate your way around it.” SEANC successfully fought to amend the parts of the bill that would have violated state employees’ constitutional rights before it passed the Senate on May 11. On the surface, this bill seems well-
intentioned. We applaud efforts at transparency and openness in state government where and when it is needed and beneficial to the public good. This bill still contains problems, though. The burden of proof is on the employees to prove that they are innocent of false claims prior to publication. And a general description of any personnel action could be written in the personnel record in a salacious manner and would be subjective at best. Bills like this one have come up several times over the years, including an effort in 1997 and another in 2011. SEANC will continue to oppose it in the House.
2021 Virtual SEANC Convention Friday, September 10 Details to come.
Drive n to SEAN C ANN UAL C ONVE NTION 2021