Instead of Wage Hikes, UC Offering Extra Days Off

UC is offering staff employees two extra paid leave days in lieu of wage increases for the year, UC officials announced earlier this month.

Because the 2004-05 state budget does not provide for funding for staff salary increases, UC was unable to offer any raises for workers this year, said UC Office of the President spokesperson Paul Schwartz.

UC granted the two days off to relieve workers who will not receive a wage increase this year and "in appreciation of the hard work and ongoing dedication of its valuable staff," said UC President Robert Dynes in an Aug. 19 statement.

"Clearly, it's not a substitute for a salary increase," Schwartz said. "We're trying to do whatever is in our power to offset the disappointing budget cuts and lack of wage increases."

With UC suffering from four straight years of state budget cuts, nonacademic employees have seen minimal wage increases for the past couple of years. UC also did not grant increases to most staff employees last year, Dynes said.

While the one-time Bonus Leave Program will go into effect for nonunionized workers, the two days off for union workers is contingent on negotiations with the university.

Union workers are concerned that they will have to waive their right to negotiate salary increases for the academic year if they accept the bonus leave offer, said Margy Wilkinson, statewide chief steward of the Coalition of University Employees (CUE), a systemwide clerical union representing 17,000 workers.

UC is offering the union employees 1.5 percent salary increase for 2005-06 and 2006-07, "provided UC receives sufficient funding from the state," according to an Aug. 24 negotiation update from UC Office of the President.

In 2003, UC granted CUE workers a 1 percent increase after the union requested a 7.5 percent increase.

The union has presented UC with a counter-offer to the Bonus Leave Program that would extend their current contract with UC-which is set to expire at the end of the month-to Dec. 31, according to Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie, CUE chief negotiator.

UC has yet to respond to the counteroffer, but negotiations are set to continue at the end of the month, Alaji-Sabrie said.

Wilkinson said that if UC rejects the contract extension, the union would possibly reject the bonus leave days.

Nonunionized workers will receive the bonus days regardless of what the unions decide.

Some campus staffers said UC's offer pits nonunionized and unionized workers against each other.

"It's divisive of our staff," said library assistant Mark Taylor, who is a nonunionized worker.

The situation has left some unionized workers feeling resentful and demoralized, they said.

"I think it's unfair for the university to give (the program) to nonrepresented workers if the university is making it hard for represented workers to get it," said library assistant Maureen Davis, a member of CUE.

Schwartz noted several programs designed to help alleviate the lack of salary benefits brought on by cuts in state funding.

UC has lowered health care costs by basing premium prices on salary and offers certain employees a voluntary reduction of their hours, which would lead to a decrease in payroll and layoffs, Schwartz said.

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