SEA got $74 per hour stat from DAS

Yesterday, we linked to DAS Commissioner Linda Hodgden's op-ed claiming that the State Employees Association was using faulty information, including the claim that some part-time workers were making $74 an hour. SEA President Gary Smith posted his response in the comments section of the Union Leader article.

The numbers for how many part time state employees and what they're paid came straight from Administrative Services (Commissioner Hodgdon) in reporting to the Legislature for the Fiscal Note in HB 662. Follow the below link to look it up for yourself.

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2009/HB0662.html

HB 662 FISCAL NOTE

AN ACT relative to paid sick leave for employees.

FISCAL IMPACT:

The Department of Labor states this bill will increase state expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2009 and each year thereafter. The Department of Administrative Services, New Hampshire Association of Counties, and New Hampshire Municipal Association state this bill may increase state, county, and local expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2009 and each year thereafter. This bill will have no fiscal impact on state, county, or local revenues.

METHODOLOGY:

The Department of Labor states this bill requires employers to provide paid sick leave for employees. The Department states a poster, rules, and forms would need to be developed, increasing the Departments costs by an indeterminable amount. The Department currently has a process for filing complaints and holding administrative hearings, including administering civil penalties. However, because the Department has no data to estimate how this activity may increase under this bill, the full fiscal impact cannot be determined at this time.

The Department of Administrative Services states this bill will allow paid sick leave for both full-time and part-time employees. The state does not provide leave accrual for part-time employees at the 40-hour amount identified in this bill. Because the Department cannot estimate the number of employees taking sick leave, or the extent to which additional human resources will be required to cover sick employees, the fiscal impact cannot be determined at this time. However, the Department estimates if every part-time employee took the full sick leave amount and each employee was required to be covered by another employee at the average pay for that position, the cost for a 40-hour week would be as follows:


Type of PT Employee
Number of Employees
Average Hourly Wage
Total

Adjunct Faculty
1,727
$306.80
$21,193,744

Classified Employees
3,628
$13.42
$1,947,510

Judicial Branch
211
$57.71
$487,072

Non-classified Employees
1,473
$74.11
$4,366,561


The New Hampshire Association of Counties states to the extent full and part-time county employees are not already provided 40 hours of paid sick leave each calendar year, or to the extent employees are not currently allowed sick leave for all of the reasons identified as allowable reasons in this bill, county expenditures may increase if other personnel are required to cover the sick days. As the Association cannot estimate the number of employees without sick leave or how many may require coverage by other personnel, the fiscal impact cannot be determined at this time.

The New Hampshire Municipal Association states to the extent full and part-time municipal employees are not already provided 40 hours of paid sick leave each calendar year, or to the extent employees are not currently allowed sick leave for all of the reasons identified as allowable reasons in this bill, local expenditures may increase if other personnel are required to cover the sick days. As the Association cannot estimate the number of employees without sick leave or how many may require coverage by other personnel, the fiscal impact cannot be determined at this time.

This bill does not include an appropriation or establish positions.
- Gary Smith, Concord NH

SEA chief re-elected to 6th year

Karen Langley reports in the Concord Monitor that SEA President Gary Smith has re-elected to another year at the head of the union.

Union delegates meeting in Nashua yesterday cast 120 votes for Smith and 93 votes for opponent Ed Hager, said SEA spokesman Mike Barwell.

The election was the outcome of a Department of Labor investigation into complaints made by Smith's opponents after the union elections last year. The Department of Labor and the union settled with no admission of fault and an agreement to hold new elections for the second year of the term.

Smith said yesterday the vote was a vindication.

"We ran a fair and open campaign and election last year. We ran a fair and open campaign and election this year," he said. "It ought to clear up any doubt about the veracity of our process."

Lynch Layoff Roundup

In the Telegraph, Kevin Landrigan says Governor John Lynch is moving forward with plans to lay off 250 workers and demote 60 more.

Some of the savings will occur through the elimination of vacant jobs that are paid for in the existing $11.5 billion state budget, Lynch told reporters.

The three-term Democratic chief executive said some employees at all levels of authority will be let go, but whole agencies and specific jobs solely paid for with federal or other nonstate dollars would be exempt from the layoff.

Many of those vacancies were already included in the budget, which extended the partial hiring freeze imposed by Lynch in February 2008.

Shira Schoenberg gets reaction from the head of the State Employees Association in the Monitor.

"Services are going to go unprovided," said SEA President Gary Smith. "Kids are going to go unprotected. Elderly are going to freeze. And we're going to be able to say this didn't have to happen. . . . This happened because the governor didn't recognize the need and didn't give the resources to it."

Smith said the union is considering whether it has any legal avenue to challenge the layoffs.

He added that after the vote, Lynch had little choice.

"(Lynch) built his own political box," Smith said. "He had nowhere to go but to show that he's tough and can follow through on his threat."

In the Union Leader, Tom Fahey reports that the cuts will come from departments funded with state General Fund dollars.

Lynch would not specify what government agencies will be hit. Only jobs that will save the state money will be cut, he said.

That means layoffs are unlikely at the Department of Employment Security, which is federally funded. Banking, Insurance and the Public Utilities Commission appear safe, too, since they run on fees from companies they regulate.

Many Safety and Transportation jobs rely on highway funds, not general tax revenues. Safety Commissioner John Barthelmes told his workers in a memo yesterday "there will be no layoffs" in his department.

Political fallout from SEA Contract Mess

In the Sunday columns, both Kevin Landrigan and Tom Fahey look at the political fallout of the State Employees Association contract squabble.

In his column, Landrigran reports that union negotiator Diana Lacey says state workers are looking out for New Hampshire residents and not just their paychecks.

SEA chief negotiator Diana Lacey said that in casting their votes, employees will have the proper delivery of state services on their minds as much as their own finances.

"Therein lies the struggle that has far more to do with a long-term issue state employees have been living with, but for which the public is essentially unaware,'' she wrote in an op-ed piece released Friday.

Under the State House Dome, Fahey writes that the contract isn't the only choice facing union members.

This isn't the only big vote coming up for SEA, either. On Oct. 24, about 400 union delegates will gather in Nashua to vote for SEA president, second vice president and secretary. The last time President Gary Smith was elected, the results were challenged. The new vote is the negotiated outcome of a complaint to the U.S. Department of Labor that Smith used a delegate contact list he withheld from other candidates.

The union also faces a renewed effort by the New England Police Benevolent Association to woo corrections officers away from SEA. The group already voted once to join NEPBA, but the results were thrown out because of problems in timing of the organizing petition.

Talks fall apart between state, union workers

The Governor's Office has fired back at SEA chief Gary Smith's allegation of bad faith, saying that the union is responsible for talks breaking down by bringing last minute demands to the neogtiating table. Kevin Landrigan reports on Lynch spokesman Colin Manning's comments in the Nashua Telegraph.

The eliminated overtime has been paid to correction officers for more than 12 years but legislators nixed it to preserve some correction jobs Lynch called for laying off with the closure of the minimum-security prison in Laconia.

Manning said union negotiators came to the table with these last minute demands that weren’t part of the delicate talks that produced a tentative agreement last month.

“Unfortunately in the last several sessions, the union has begun to walk away from provisions agreed to in the tentative agreement and to demand additional items not contained in the tentative agreement,” Manning said.

State Employees leader says deal in danger

The Union Leader reports that the agreement between the state and the State Employees Assocication may be falling apart.

Gary Smith, president of SEIU Local 1984, said Rich Sigel, chief of staff for Gov. John Lynch, told him yesterday that the state will not negotiate a clause the union believes is unfair to the 500 or so corrections officers that are part of the union's 7,500 state employees.

Sigel was not available for comment last night.

"We were so close to finalizing the agreement," Smith said. "Now, at the last minute, the governor is walking away from this agreement that will provide $50 million in potential savings."

The Governor's Office has yet to comment. If this deal is falling apart because the union wants to renegotiate a clause, then it isn't the Governor who's walking away from an agreement. It's the union that wants to open up a contract already in place.

Union hopeful for deal

Lauren Dorgon reports in the Concord Monitor that the state may be close to a new contract with its largest union:

Negotiators for the State Employees' Association and the state appear to be nearing a new contract deal likely to include widespread unpaid furloughs instead of as many as 750 additional layoffs.

"It feels really close," said union President Gary Smith, who met with Democratic Gov. John Lynch this week. Smith cited that meeting plus the involvement of two new mediators - former labor commissioner Jim Casey and former SEA negotiator Dick Molan - as reasons to hope a deal could be reached as soon as tomorrow. (more)