December 16, 2012
New Pension Plan Being Considered by General Assembly
 |
State Representatives
Elaine Nekritz and Daniel Biss.
|
THE BILL introduced by State
Rep. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) and
State Rep. Elaine Nekritz
(D-Northbrook), would:
• Create a new 30-year
pension payment plan, making the State pay its employer share with a new funding
right that can be enforced through court action.
• Allow cost-of-living
pension increases only for the first $25,000 of an employee's pension.
• Increase employees'
retirement age from one to five years, depending on their current age.
• Increase employees'
pension contributions.
• Place new hires in a
cash balance plan that combines features of defined contribution (or 401(k))
plans and defined benefit plans.
• Further limit
legislators' pension increases.
• Gradually shift
teacher pension costs from the State to the school districts that determine
salaries.
• Further pay down
pension debt with revenues freed ups when existing pension obligation notes are
paid off.
BISS AND Nekritz are calling
for action before the current Legislature's term ends on Wednesday, Jan. 9.
•
A plan that includes State-sponsored retiree health care and lower annual cost
of living increases than those now offered. The COLA would start at age 67 or
five years after retirement, whichever occurs first; it would be the lesser of
three percent or half the consumer price index, calculated on the original annuity.
•
A plan that offers the same annual cost of living increases now available, 3
percent annual COLA on a compound interest basis, without participation in the
state-sponsored retiree health care program.
THE PROPOSED legislation would not increase the pension contribution by
employees or change the effective retirement age. However, it would essentially
force employees to choose between health care benefits or the current COLA.
SEE ALSO State
Journal-Register, Dec.
4: http://www.sj-r.com/thedome/x1156351407/Details-emerge-on-new-pension-plan?zc_p=0.
Decision on Civil Service-Academic Professional Designation Won't Please All
 |
“It’s hard
for me to imagine how we're going to please both sides,"
said Karen
Hasara, a University of Illinois Trustee.
|
By Christine Des Garennes
News-Gazette, Nov.
15, 2012
URBANA — No decision has been made yet on whether State universities will
continue to have the power to exempt certain employees from the Civil Service
system, but a decision is likely to happen in the coming months.EITHER WAY it's possible neither side will be satisfied with the outcome, whatever that outcome will be, according to one University trustee.
“IT’S HARD for me to imagine how we're going to please both sides," said Karen Hasara, a University of Illinois Trustee who sits on the merit board of the State Universities Civil Service System (SUCSS). "I'd like to see us retain our authority," she said. But the university needs "to look at our processes and see if we can do it better," Hasara said.
STATE UNIVERSITIES hire their own employees, but the Civil Service system, as outlined in State statutes, helps develop and administer human resources programs for when State universities hire employees other than Presidents and Vice Presidents, faculty, and students. Back in the 1990s, the Civil Service system started allowing universities to decide whether a position is classified as Civil Service or Academic Professional. That is, so long as the system could periodically audit those positions to ensure they were not being classified as Academic Professional when they should be Civil Service.
SEVERAL YEARS of audits — 2008, 2009, and 2010 — of positions on the UIC campus found a high number of employees being classified as AP instead of Civil Service. Unions and some legislators cried foul and several legislative hearings followed. In recent years, UIC has been slowly reclassifying hundreds of positions there to civil service.
AFTER TWO bills that proposed to take away exemption authority from the universities failed to get the needed approval in the General Assembly, Tom Morelock, the Executive Director of SUCSS, proposed a rule change that would essentially accomplish the same thing: Put the exemption authority back in the hands of the State agency.
THE PROPOSED amendment has been filed with the State's Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. Because of State deadlines, the merit board will have to decide at its next meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013, if it wants to move forward with the amendment or not.
AT A Merit Board meeting in November, Hasara suggested a committee that would include employee groups, agency staff, and University Human Resources professionals meet in the coming months to discuss the issues and what is happening on the campuses for the audits to show so many employees are misclassified.
“I DO think we need to get to the bottom of this," before the board considers taking the exemption authority away from the universities, she said.
MAUREEN PARKS, the University’s Executive Director for Human Resources, said she was optimistic a compromise could be reached and she looked forward to meeting with other members of the group. She has said losing the exemption authority would severely hamper the University's ability to recruit employees and remain competitive.
“THE WAY to move forward," said University of Illinois Professor Roy Campbell, "is not removing the exemption authority." Campbell said he had confidence in the University's ability to improve the processes and address issues raised in the audit.
“HIRING DECISIONS should be done at the local level," he said.
A PUBLIC hearing will be held on Thursday, Jan. 3, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the State Universities Civil Service System, 1717 Philo Road, Suite 24, Urbana, IL 61802. No oral testimony should exceed 15 minutes; each person presenting oral testimony must provide to SUCCS a typewritten copy of the testimony at the time.
FOR QUESTIONS or information, contact Abby Daniels, Manager, Legal Services and Legal Counsel, State Universities Civil Service System, at the address above or at abbyd@sucss.illlinois.gov or (217) 278-3150, ext. 226.
We Are One Illinois Coalition Responds to Governor’s Call for Pension Reform
“NO
ONE doubts the need
for pension reform. The question is whether it will be real reform that is fair
to workers and upholds our State's constitution while fixing the real problem:
The past failure of politicians to pay their share. That is not what Governor
Quinn has proposed,” the coalition stated.
“POLITICIANS
GOT our State into
this fiscal hole by skipping payments, then using the money to pay for other
vital services. Blaming workers or their unions won't fix the mess. And polls
have shown that an overwhelming majority of Illinois voters rightly agree with
us on these points.
“IT
IS important to
understand that nearly 80% of State pension participants--including all
Illinois teachers, police, fire fighters, and City of Chicago, Cook County and State
university employees--do not receive Social Security. For these, their modest
pension is their primary and often sole source of support in retirement,” the
coalition noted.
“THE
FORCED-CHOICE plan
pushed by the Governor and legislative leaders is a coercive diminishment of
these modest benefits. Thus it is not a real solution to the pension problem,
as the Governor himself acknowledged in 2010 when he said such cuts would
violate the Constitution. Like the proposed Constitutional Amendment that
Illinois voters recently rejected, this is a phony plan posing as reform. It
will lead to costly litigation while the pension debt grows," the
Coalition concluded.
APAC Meetings Scheduled; New Members Named
ALL
APs are invited to
the monthly APAC meeting at 12:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month.
Meetings are held either in Room 5175 of the College of Medicine Research
Building, 909 S. Wolcott, or Room 2750 of University Hall on the East Campus. Next
meeting is Jan. 9 in Room 2750 UH. For information, call (312) 996-0306.
TWO
NEW members have
joined APAC. Uma Sriram is an
Accounting Consultant in the Office of Business and Financial Services,
University Accounting and Financial Reporting.
Mary Berta is Assistant to the Head, Department of Occupational
Therapy, Applied Health Sciences. Berta will serve as Secretary of APAC.
MEET THE CHANCELLOR’S COMMITTEES
 |
“All the work we do on
campus is meant to improve the conditions and empower the employees, faculty,
and students on our campus,” Stephanie J. Whitaker, Co-Chair of the CCSB,
explained.
|
By Lucia Gonzalez
THE CHANCELLOR’S Committee on the Status of Blacks
(CCSB) serves as an advisory body to Chancellor Paula Allen-Meares and the UIC Office of Access and Equity on
finding resolutions to situations that create campus climate disparity. These
issues can be social, academic, or professional. For example, the CCSB will
concern itself with campus governance, employment practices, policy processes,
public relations, student affairs, and anything else that affects the
well-being of Blacks on the UIC campus.
THE CCSB consists of 14 officially appointed
members, who are nominated by the CCSB campus community at large, and approved
by the Chancellor, as well as an extended group of members who attend the
meetings regularly and work within the sub-committees. General business
meetings are held monthly and the sub-committees that represent students,
faculty, or staff also host a regular meeting schedule.
ADDITIONALLY, THE CCSB has a Strategic Planning
Committee that works with each of the constituency groups on planning
activities, workshops, and providing information to the campus at large. The
meetings, workshops, and events are meant to stimulate discussion, provide
information, and allow involvement opportunities.
A VERY successful recent workshop CCSB
hosted here on campus was a panel discussion and Q&A session on the Civil
Service Job Analyses and Conversions that are currently happening on campus.
This workshop was open to all and the audience represented a very diverse
population of University staff. The
panel included UIC Human Resources, the Executive Director of the State
Universities Civil Service System, the Chair of the Academic Professional
Advisory Committee, and the President of the UIC Staff Advisory Council.
THE CCSB is making plans to host
an on-campus workshop or Brown Bag information sessions in Spring 2013 on
career development and job planning for staff-- both Civil Service and Academic
Professionals.
“ALL THE work we do on campus is meant to
improve the conditions and empower the employees, faculty, and students on our
campus,” Stephanie J. Whitaker, Co-Chair
of the CCSB, explained. “One of the many issues that CCSB discusses concerns
career development and compensation equity.” Whitaker has been an Academic
Professional at the University since 1993.
TO
FURTHER its goal to
get its message to the campus, CCSB this year is inviting the College Deans to
the monthly meetings. Whitaker stated, “We have made it a priority to put
a face on our Colleges. What we have discovered is that the meetings that
include Deans increase our attendance. More staff and faculty from the colleges
attend our meetings when the Dean is present. This also happens when we
have meetings with the Chancellor. Our annual meeting with the Chancellor will
take place, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, for those that want to attend.”
TO CONTACT the CCSB, send email to CCSB@uic.edu
or go to their website at http://www.uic.edu/depts/ccsb/, which is in the process of being upgraded. The new
website will go live in January 2013 thanks to the efforts of Portia White and Jason Richards.
BENEFIT BEAT
THE STATE University Annuitants Association (SUAA) is offering a discounted Long Term Care Insurance Program provided by LTC Global Inc., which represents various top insurance carriers. Its goal is to find the best program available for each individual at the lowest price.
CONSIDERING THE high cost for Long Term Care, this
program is designed to help protect you, your family, and your retirement
security. Protection is available should you need care at home or in assisted
living or nursing home facilities.
THIS DISCOUNTED program now is being made available
to all SUAA members under the age of 80.
TO REQUEST information on this program click
TO REQUEST information on this program click here or call 1 (888) 305-4582. The program
offers special discounts not available to the general public.
AP RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT
Drug and Alcohol Policy
THE UNIVERSITY of Illinois at Chicago seeks to maintain a campus environment that is free of the illegal use of alcohol and other drugs (AOD). TO MEET this goal, the University promotes and practices the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988 and the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act Amendments of 1989 through its Alcohol and Other Drugs policy (see http://www.uic.edu/depts/wellctr/docs/AOD%20Policy.pdf).
THOSE WHO violate Federal, State, or local laws concerning drugs or alcohol are subject to criminal prosecution; those who violate University policies may also be subject to institutional sanctions or dismissal.
THE UNLAWFUL or unauthorized possession, use, distribution, dispensation, sale, or manufacture of controlled substances or alcohol is prohibited on University property or as part of any University activity. Those who violate this policy may be disciplined in accordance with University policies, statutes, rules, and regulations up to and including dismissal and referral for prosecution.
UNDER EXISTING policies and in compliance with Federal and State laws, employees are subject to disciplinary action, including discharge, for unauthorized consumption of intoxicating liquors on institutional time or property; inability to satisfactorily perform their assigned duties as a result of drinking alcoholic beverages; illegal use of drugs, narcotics, or intoxicants; unauthorized sale or distribution of drugs, narcotics, or intoxicants; or otherwise unfit to perform job duties due to use of alcohol or illegal drugs. If you have a problem with controlled substances or alcohol, please seek professional advice and treatment. You may seek help for a problem or obtain a list of counseling, rehabilitation, and assistance programs confidentially by calling the campus Employee Assistance Service staff at (312) 996-3588. In some cases, your supervisor may direct you to request this information.
IF CONVICTED of a drug or alcohol offense that took place at work, you must notify your supervisor within five days. If you are an employee working on a Federal contract or grant and you are convicted of a drug or alcohol offense occurring in the workplace, the University will notify the granting or contracting Federal agency within ten days of receiving notice of your conviction. Employees convicted of a drug or alcohol offence involving the workplace may be disciplined or discharged under existing laws, policies, and rules, or may be required to complete a drug rehabilitation program in order to continue employment at the University.
THE UNIVERSITY provides educational programs and counseling to those who are substance users or who are affected by the substance abuse of others. For confidential help with these problems, contact the Counseling Center at (312) 996-3490.
THE CONTINUING CRISIS
Editor’s Note: “The Continuing Crisis” is a section of APAC News which links to news pertinent to the state budget crisis and other financial matters as they affect the University and Academic Professionals. These news outlets are not affiliated with or endorsed by APAC.
SURS ANALYSIS of the recent proposal to reform the pension system, Dec. 10, 2012. See http://uicretirement.blogspot.com/2012/12/surs-analysis-of-recent-proposal-to.html.
PENSION SYSTEM suffers ‘systematic underfunding,’ lobbyists say. See UIC News, Dec. 12, 2012, http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/uicnews/articledetail.cgi?id=16925.
Vol. 5, No. 11 December 2012
ISSN 1946-1860
Editor: William S. Bike
Staff: Ivone De Jesus, Lucia Gonzalez, Monica M. Walk
Vice Chair: Ahlam Al-Kodmany
Chair: Michael Moss
Secretary: Mary Berta
Treasurer: Virginia Buglio
Web Chair: Jeff Alcantar
Web Chair: Jeff Alcantar
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)