Bargaining Update - June 21, 2019

Yesterday after 10 hours of negotiations with the District, the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association and Orange County Public Schools reached a tentative agreement on compensation, benefits and contract language for the school year 2019-2020.  

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A Few Noteworthy Items

There are 4 items of interest to bring to your attention:

1)  General Wage Increase: All A&R members are getting a long awaited 3.5% raise effective today (6/21/19).  This will be slightly offset by an increase of a 0.5% contribution to the pension fund.  Both changes will show up in the July 19th paycheck. 

2)  Pension Funding Discussions: The State has asked SEBAC to discuss the pension funding agreement in place since 2016.  This is an effort to re-amortize the pension debt and re-structure the state's payment plan.  We want to be clear as to what this represents, and what this does not represent:  This is about impacting the timing and level of the annual payments made by the state into the SERs pension fund.  This is NOT about changing pension benefits.  Regardless of the pension funding agreements, the pension benefits will remain in full force.  SEBAC unions have no interest in modifying the benefits or any other aspect of the SERs plan or the SEBAC 2017 agreement.  This is a pension funding issue only.  The state is seeking to achieve annual savings by re-structuring the debt and would need the approval of SEBAC leadership to modify its current payment plan.

3)  Pharmacy Agreement:  Comptroller Kevin Lembo announced on Wednesday, June 19th that the Healthcare Cost Containment Committee has reached a landmark agreement with CVS/Caremark which will capture the rebates and savings typically offered by the pharmacuetical industry which historically have not been passed on to the State.  The Healthcare Cost Containment Committee is a joint labor/management committee overseeing the administration of our medical benefits and costs.  This agreement was unanimously approved by the joint HCCC and will produce savings without impacting our phamacy benefits.

4)  Newly Accreted Members/Job Titles:  Guidance has been given to the impacted agencies to apply the Accretion Agreements passed by the Legislature in the 2019 Session.  This means that the agencies should begin implementing the terms of those agreements which include:  3.5% General Wage Increase, the $1000/$2000 payment, and retro-active Longevity Payments for 2018 and April 2019.  The TopStepPayment or the 2% increment (in lieu of a Step) will be on time, in January 2020.  Lastly, accreted members will be responsible to take one furlough day (if no furlough days were taken between July 2017 and June 2018).  The General Wage Increase and retro-active payments should be reflected in your July 19th paycheck.

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Telework 6/20

DAS acknowledges that the Telework Work Plan document which it posted is NOT a required document, it was a sample document.  A work plan in general is a required element of the Telework process, but the Telework Work Plan document sighted was only a sample, it was not a mandatory document. 

As the telework program rolls out, we are trying to organize any denials so we can bring them forward for review by the Telework Committee.  Any A&R member denials should be sent to the A&R telework email address: telework@andr.org and cc’d to the SEBAC telework email address of teleworksebac@gmail.com.  Please include in the email a copy of the application forms and include any stated or written reason for the denial.  This will begin the appeal process.

We are also able to appeal unreasonable delays in the application/approval process.  For this initial starting phase, anyone who submitted their application prior to June 21st and has not received an approval/denial by July 10th, please notify us at the above email addresses along with your:

  1. application forms
  2. proof of your submittal date
  3. any follow-up communications to/from your manager

Going forward (beyond this initial start-up phase), an unreasonable delay would generally be any determination taking longer than two weeks time from date of submittal.

The rights obtained under this agreement are not limited to a managers personal feelings regarding Telework.  If any A&R employee/supervisor is being instructed to hold-off or simply deny requests in a manner that is inconsistent with the Interim Telework agreement, please follow your directives, however, memorialize the instructions given to you by email to your supervisor/manager (e.g., "You have instructed me to X, please correct my understanding if in error") and inform us via the telework@andr.org address along with the memorialized instructions. This would include any directives that encourage members to either not apply or to apply for only 1 day rather than 2.

 

Licensing Fees/Client Security Fee

Attorneys who practice law in the State of CT are assessed an annual fee of $75 for the Client Security Fund.  As this fee is a requirement to practice law in CT, A&R attorneys can have this cost covered/reimbursed by the State in accordance with Article 24 Section 7 Licensing Fees.  If your agency does not make the payment on your behalf, you should submit your payment receipt for reimbursement.

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