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Start 2008 Bargaining Information

START NEWS FLASH

On Friday, July 25,2008, CUE and UC reached a conceptual agreement on START. There is a revised START contract for CX Employees.

CUE's agreement for CX participation in START

CX START contract (This is different than the contract UC has initiated with other START participants)

START NEWS FLASH

On July 21,2008, The University was notified that:

"The CUE bargaining team continues to have serious concerns about the impact of the START Program on our unit. Our specific concerns include, but are not limited to, the program's impact on workload distribution and seniority calculations, and the wholesale exclusion of medical center employees. The CUE bargaining team cannot endorse the START Program in its current form to the CX unit. We have advised the CUE statewide executive board that we believe the benefit of the START Program to our jurisdiction is minimal, and that only a very small segment of the CX unit can possibly benefit from participation.

In spite of our reservations, CUE has decided to give its members the opportunity to decide for themselves whether or not to participate in the START Program. UC may implement the START Program for the CX unit effective August 1, 2008 on the condition that we can come to agreement on the changes to the START contract proposed in your July 17th email to me. CUE will be sending out a notice to CUE-represented employees informing them of this decision, and providing them with a statement explaining our reservations about the START Program.

See CUE's letter to Peter Chester, UC's Chief Negotiator, giving this notice.

 

PRO and CON STATEMENTS

After meeting and conferring with UC representatives in June and July the CUE bargaining team reported back to the CUE statewide executive board. Based upon that report, the CUE statewide executive board does not endorse CUE employee participation in the START Program. However, CUE will not prevent CUE represented employee's participation in the START Program. Any individual who chooses to participate in START is doing so at the risk of encountering some serious consequences. Below we have provided a PRO and CON analysis developed by the bargaining team and the statewide executive board.

CUE has informed UC administration of this decision. Those interested in participating in the START Program should contact their department HR representative. We remind everybody that your department has to agree to participate in the START Program in order for you to be eligible. The information below is the opinion of CUE and not a description of the program. The START Program's rules and procedures are established by UC. Therefore, you should read carefully the START contract and program materials before signing up for the START Program.

PRO CON
  • Provides transition for those contemplating retirement
  • Full appointment service credit, seniority calculation, vacation and sick accrual while working reduced hours
  • Can allow departments to cut back expenses and possibly avoid layoffs or involuntary reductions in hours
  • CUE grievance procedure available for complaint resolution regarding START participation (other than a department's decision to participate in START)
  • In the event employee contributions to the UCRP are restarted during a START contract, the employee's department will pay the difference between the employee's START salary contribution and the pre-START salary contribution
  • Opportunity for those who want to spend time on other activities, e.g. continuing education, part-time work, and family obligations
  • The department head has the right to deny individual requests to participate in START. Consequently the possibility of abuses, in terms of unfair treatment, exists
  • Participation in START is not a guarantee that layoffs will not occur in the departments participating in the START program
  • Designation of the allocation of the money savings from CUE represented employees' participation in START is totally at the discretion of department management and is not automatically allocated to offset expenses associated with CUE represented employees, e.g. salaries and or wage increases
  • Increased workload for those workers in department not participating in START
  • Seniority calculation of START program based on pre-START appointment percentage is unfair to those not taking START and contrary to the spirit of the CUE contract which calculates seniority on actual hours worked
  • Medical Center employees will likely be denied opportunity to participate in START Program
  • Inconsistent use of pre-START and START salary rate applied to death benefits
  • Some of the consequences of participation in START not explicitly stated in the START contract are:
    • Reduced salary may affect future unemployment benefits in the event of a layoff during the START program time period
    • Social security benefits affected by reduced salary income
    • FMLA designation can be affected by reduced hours. You must work 1250 hours in the year to maintain FMLA designation.
  • Based upon the questions posed to UC representatives, the START program implementation has been hurriedly formulated and not as well thought out as a program of this scope should be
  • Financial impact upon the UCRP has been characterized by UC pension consultants as insignificant at a time when UC Regents are again attempting to reinstate employee contributions to the retirement plan

http://www.cueunion.org/bargaining/start08/start08-Info.php        03-July-2009 17:05:56
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