A plan that provides several changes for state workers’ benefits and freezes their wages for the next two years was passed by a legislative committee Thursday, potentially weakening the hiring power of University of Wisconsin System schools.
On Thursday, the Joint Committee on Employee Relations approved the compensation plan created by the Office of Human Resources and Employee Relations for state workers for the next two years.
During the hearing, Greg Gracz, director of the Office of State Employment Relations, said several modifications were made from the 2009-11 compensation plan.
A major change, he said, is that 41,000 employees, up from 9,000 in the last two years, will be covered by the new compensation plan.
The increase in employees is largely due to changes to collective bargaining created by Gov. Scott Walker’s legislation, he said, because many law-mandated benefits formerly covered by bargaining units had to be implemented in the new compensation plan.
The plan will also freeze the wages of all state employees in Wisconsin for the next two years, which would include the faculty and staff of UW System colleges, UW System spokesperson David Giroux said.
The wage freeze, Giroux said, may make it difficult for campuses to hold and recruit valuable professors looking at employment from other universities.
“I think the facts are that we have compensation at the UW campuses that is lower than comparable universities elsewhere, and it’s a growing concern,” Giroux said.
Giroux said the biennial budget passed by the Legislature this summer does include a provision that would allow the UW System to create a supplemental plan separate from the state’s compensation plan. UW System schools could draw from this plan to increase the wages of their employees.
While the plan could be administered to fund wage increases for professors and other staff, Giroux said several restrictions exist that make the possibility of large-scale wage increases unrealistic.
If implemented, a supplemental plan would have to be self-funded by the UW System institutions themselves, he said. Aside from having to search for funds, the System would also have to receive the Legislature’s approval for a supplemental plan.
Also complicating the situation are the budget cuts UW System has been asked to give back to the state, Giroux said.
The biennial budget made a $250 million cut to the budget of UW System schools and institutions. More recently, he said, an additional cut of $65 million was made to the UW System budget over the next two years. A provision within this cut would allow the Legislature to increase the cut to $113 million if the economy worsens.
Consequently, Giroux said finding their own funds to increase wages for employees while simultaneously paying more than $300 million in state financing will essentially ensure UW System schools will not be able to increase wages for the next two years.
In a statement, Walker said he supported JCER’s decision to pass OSER’s compensation plan.
He said the plan treats state employees fairly, lessens wasteful overtime spending and creates a platform for financially rewarding productive and driven workers.
“These compensation plans are good for employees, respectful of taxpayers,” Walker said in the statement. “They are yet another step forward as we continue to provide core government services under a balanced state budget that didn’t increase taxes.”
