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Employees at the University of Wisconsin, including classified and academic staff, will not receive any raises under the 2011-13 compensation plan for the state, but benefits, including sick leave and parts of the health insurance plan for state employees, did not get significantly cut, according to documents from the Department of Administration.
Every two years, a new state compensation plan is released that shows the salary, benefits and other work place rules. The 2009-11 plan also did not grant raises.
“In fact, employees’ pay was reduced more than 3 percent due to furloughs,” Academic Personnel Office Director Steve Lund said.
Lund said the last compensation plan that increased pay for employees took place in the 2007-09 biennium, allowing a 2 percent raise in the first year and a 1 percent raise in the second year.
Transfer rights, increased discretion on starting salaries in some positions and the possibility of giving pay increases to individuals based on performance have been discussed in the new plan as well, Lund said.
Lund added the conversion of unused sick leave to payment for health insurance premiums will remain in the new compensation plan.
Lund said the Office of State Employment Relations submitted this compensation plan to take effect during the biennium occurring between July 1, 2011, and June 30, 2013. Approval by the Joint Committee on Employment Relations will be deliberated in the next few weeks.
If the plan is approved, it will become effective on January 1, 2012, according to a UW statement.
UW Faculty Senate member Bradford Barham said when the Compensation Plan came out, UW still intended to pursue the next year’s improvements in compensation.
“There may be other ways we can do it besides the state plan, so I don’t know whether they’re referring to that or not,” Barham said. “It’s a wide open discussion.”
The budget repair bill created a difference in this biennium’s compensation plan versus the previous compensation plan by altering the scope of collective bargaining in terms of wages, Lund said.
“Any sort of compensation plan will have to spell out what the rules are, so we’ll no longer be collectively bargained,” UW Vice Chancellor for Administration Darrell Bazzell said.
The provision of more information to help employees understand the implications of the new compensation plan will take place in the near future.
The Office of State Employment Relations will start to brief some of the affected agencies about the specifics about what is being presented to the Legislature, Bazzell said.
Bazzell said he is unsure whether UW is involved in the plan or not because the decisions are focused on state agencies, and the UW is not a state agency.
A meeting will be held this Monday with the administration to discuss the implications of the compensation plan and its restrictions, Barham said.
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