"Effective 7/1/2017" Means What to You?

The state has indicated to SEBAC that the state operates on a cash basis.  As such, they claim that "Effective 7/1/17" means something slightly different than what you might expect.  For instance, regarding pension contributions, the 2017 SEBAC Agreement language specifies: "Effective 7/1/17 contributions in all SERS Tiers shall increase by 1.5% of salary".  Seems straight forward - doesn't it?  We thought so.  But the state, in its infinite wisdom, with its cash basis claim, is interpreting this to mean that pay period June 23 through July 6, 2017 was paid after July 1, and therefore all e

Legislative Session

The 2018 CT Legislative Session opened last month and it came as no surprise that state employees are again being targeted by the same group of legislators who continue to attack working families.  Bill no. 5068, co-sponsored by House Minority Leader Themis Klarides would:

Kronos - DAS Installing Employee Tracking System

DAS is instituting a "time management" system in all agencies throughout the Executive Branch.  The system is designed by a company called Kronos and it is an electronic "sign-in/sign-out" system.  The electronic sign-in/sign-out system will be installed at every office building and extend to every field employee whose agency falls under the DAS umbrella.  There are also GPS tracking capabilities for State vehicles and an associated cell phone app. 

This is directly from the homepage of the Kronos website and explains all you need to know about it:

If electronic tracking sounds good to you, then rejoice, it is on the way.  If this sounds like something you abhor and it angers you that you increased your pension contributions so the State can afford a tracking system, then you need to speak up...now.  This is a system that is expected to exceed $25 million dollars (if it works smoothly) and the process to secure the funding is under way. 

The State Bond Commission is meeting Friday 2/16 to approve money for this project.  The project is contained as a line item of a larger IT bond request so it will be difficult to extract from the overall request, but this system is so offensive it deserves our communal efforts.

If you want to oppose installation of the employee tracking system, contact the members of the Bond Commission by phone or email and let them know that this is an unacceptable waste of money during a time of extreme budgetary constraints...this is not a "need" for the State, this is a "want", and we don't want it.

The Bond Commission members are listed below: let each of them know if you believe this system is a misuse of scarce and dwindling resources and would be a prime example of wasteful spending and bad government.

Gov. Malloy
Benjamin Barnes, Secretary OPM
ben.barnes@ct.gov
Denise L. Nappier, State Treasurer state.treasurer@ct.gov
Kevin P. Lembo, State Comptroller kevin.lembo@ct.gov
George C. Jepsen, Attorney General attorney.general@ct.gov
Melody A. Currey, Commissioner DAS melody.currey@ct.gov
Sen. John W. Fonfara john.fonfara@cga.ct.gov
Sen. Scott Frantz Scott.Frantz@cga.ct.gov
Rep. Jason Rojas Jason.Rojas@cga.ct.gov
Rep. Christopher Davis chris.davis@housegop.ct.gov

Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward is a program the Chateaugay Teachers Association started two years ago. On the first payday of every month the teachers order lunch from a particular local business.

APPR Survey

Please read the following memo released by NYSUT today. 
 
We got an email last week that provided a link to complete this survey.

As you may know, the New York State Commissioner of Education released an APPR survey last Tuesday that took everyone by surprise. 

We (NYSUT) have spent time carefully examining the survey and believe it may lead to unreliable and invalid data due to the way it has been constructed.  As a result, we released the following statement Tuesday evening to the press:

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