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Union delivers the goat! But check your pay-stub for raises.

11/25/13: UO’s Payroll Office just sent around an email reminding everyone that the 1.1% dues/FS deductions start with this paycheck (If you are wondering why the dues and fair share deductions are the same for now, read point 2, here.):

From: BAO Payroll Office News
Subject: payroll: United Academics Union Dues and Fair Share Deductions on Nov 30th Paycheck

The United Academics Union has authorized the university to deduct the dues and fair share on a monthly basis from the paycheck of Union members. The dues and fair share rate is 1.1 percent of the monthly salary. The deductions were included on the November 30, 2013 paycheck, and are retroactive to the ratification date (October 8, 2013) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Since these are retroactive to the contract ratification date of 10/9/13 they are actually 1.92%, for this month only. This deduction is on the pay-stub at the bottom, under “United Academics”. The goat is sacred: the union is not deducting dues/FS from it or from the retroactive payments described below.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that the email from the administration doesn’t mention the raises the union negotiated, or the status of their implementation by UO. My advice is log on to Duckweb and check your pay-stub yourself. Go to Employee information, pay information, earnings statement, display, then click on Nov 27. Here’s my very unofficial rundown. Fact-checks are welcome in the comments:

  1. If you were on the payroll as of 10/8/2013, you should get the $350 goat money.
  2. If you were hired on or before 6/30/2012 you should get the goat, a 1.5% ATB raise (The 2013 FY ATB raise) and a catch-up payment for the 1.5%, back to 1/1/2013 in this paycheck. That catch-up payment should be a healthy 10.5% of your (old) monthly pay. In January the administration will add the 2014 1.5% ATB and your merit raise from a 2% pool (you are meritorious, right?) to your pay. These are retroactive to 7/1/2013, so there will also be another significant catch-up payment in January – on average, 15.75% of your (new) monthly pay. In July 2014 you’ll get another 1.5% ATB and be eligible for a 3.5% merit pool and a 1.5% equity pool. 
  3. If you were hired between 7/1/2012 and 12/31/2012, you get the goat but won’t get any ATB in this paycheck. But in January you should get the 2014 ATB and your merit raises, and a catch-up payment for these, back to 7/1/2013. In July 2014 you’ll get another 1.5% ATB and be eligible for a 3.5% merit pool and a 1.5% equity pool.
  4. If you were hired after 12/31/2012 and on or before 12/31/2013, in July 2014 you’ll get another 1.5% ATB and be eligible for the 3.5% merit pool and the 1.5% equity pool.

NTTF’s: All the above applies, except instead of the equity pool and raise for 7/1/2014, there will be a pool for salary floors. Details are still being worked out.

 Research faculty: I think discussions about how to handle raises for grant funded faculty are still under way. 

TRP: If you are on the TRP you will probably get the goat this month, but not the 1.5% raise or catch-up payment. The administration should have paid these, but didn’t. The union is working to fix this.

Summer money and 12 month faculty: If you are on 9 months, but got summer pay, the catch-up payment will not reflect that. The union is still working this out with the administration. I don’t know what happened if you are on a 12 month appointment.

As I said, this is all unofficial. The administration is still working on implementation, and I advise patience if your pay is not correct. But it’s a good idea to check your pay-stub!

And remember, the union worked hard to get more money for merit and equity than the administration was willing to provide. It seems that someone had sucked the well dry. Negotiations for the July 2015 contract will start in the middle of the next rainy season, in 14 months or so.

Update: Looks like the union bargaining team took Sharon Rudnick and Tim Gleason for a ride – the going price on craigslist is only $70 – albeit for a castrated dwarf:

http://eugene.craigslist.org/search/?sort=rel&areaID=94&subAreaID=&query=goat&catAbb=sss

33 Comments

  1. Anonymous 11/26/2013

    Dog confirms

    no “catch-up” pay has yet occurred for summer salary, regardless of how one got paid
    in the summer. So the retroactive payment is 7 months for the calendar year 2013 (5.5 +1.5)
    academic months.

    At this time it remains unclear if the next 1.5 ATB + 2% merit will reflect back to July 1 (i.e. summary pay)
    or back to Sept 15.

    It seems like the entire issue of summer salary was not properly considered or discussed as part of the
    overall negotiations. I don’t know why – it seems obvious to me.

  2. Anonymous 11/26/2013

    Grant funded research faculty will receive all of the above mentioned raises. The only part that i am aware of that is still being figured out are how to apply the salary floors. I am grant contingent and my pay stub this month reflects the goat, the 1.5%, and retroactive pay.

    • Anonymous 11/26/2013

      Dog says

      at least some grants would not permit a retroactive salary raise – this is for summer salary.
      Individuals on 12 month research grant appointments probably got the full 10 month 1.5% retroactive
      raise.

  3. Anonymous 11/26/2013

    The admins are going to pay us interest on these late raises, right? Because I’m paying Sallie Mae 5.8% for my PhD.

    • Not the real Jim Bean 11/26/2013

      Suck it up. I’m only paying 1.9% on my beamer.

  4. Anonymous 11/26/2013

    Dog says

    Well, these days, I mostly feel like a castrated faculty member.

  5. Anonymous 11/26/2013

    What is the process for finding out if we are in the bargaining unit, and requesting reconsideration of that status if we are? Last year my name was on the excelsior list. But in the interim I became a supervisor of several non-student employees. Someone told me that emails went out to non-BU faculty from Blandy’s office confirming their non-BU status, but I didn’t get one of those. I’d rather not pay dues or fair share if I don’t owe them.

    • UO Matters 11/26/2013

      Gottfredson is paying Tim Gleason ~$200K to answer questions like this. Email him at [email protected], and feel free to forward his response to me.

    • Three-Toed Sloth 11/26/2013

      If the “non-student employees” are in the bargaining unit and you have independent and autonomous authority to hire and fire, then you’re not in the bargaining unit.

    • Oryx 11/26/2013

      There is *no* logic to who is and isn’t in the bargaining unit (BU). In the science departments I’m familiar with, some faculty are in, some are out. We’ve tried to put together shared characteristics of people who are in or out of the BU, like supervising graduate students or having grants. (1) It’s pathetic that we have to do this, instead of having this spelled out by the administration or the union. (2) We can’t come up with anything that actually explains who’s in or out! Faculty X has graduate students, is PI on federal grants, has no postdocs, and is not in the BU; faculty Y has graduate students, is PI on federal grants, has no postdocs, and is in the BU. There are no typos in the previous sentence.

      If you look at the union elections page (http://uauoregon.org/united-academics-elections-announcement) you’ll notice the vast number of vacancies in the natural sciences. Why? Everyone I’ve talked to about the union quickly points out the inanity of the lack of clarity on BU status. Who’s in / out; when this changes based on changing status; etc. It’s bad enough that our department is split down the middle in terms of BU status. At least we deserve to know *why* it’s split. Without this, who in their right mind would want to participate?

      The union blames the administration. The admin. blames the union. Both seem incompetent in how they deal with this.

    • Anonymous 11/26/2013

      Dog says

      a) I qualify
      b) I originally was not in the Union
      c) I am in the Union now
      d) no idea what is going on

    • Three-Toed Sloth 11/27/2013

      The rule of thumb is this: If a faculty member has independent and autonomous hiring and firing authority over another member of the bargaining unit, then that faculty member cannot also be in the bargaining unit. Graduate students do not enter into the equation; they have their own unit, and nothing in state labor law precludes the members of one union hold managerial authority over a member of a different union. During the processes of certification and negotiation there was a great deal of misinformation emanating from Johnson Hall on this point, either because Johnson Hall was itself confused about the matter or because it saw some advantage in sowing confusion. Johnson Hall also had an interest in interpreting state labor law expansively, so as to keep the bargaining unit as small as possible. But there should be no confusion about a PI who has no postdocs, and supervises only graduate students; that PI should be in the bargaining unit.

  6. Anonymous 11/26/2013

    Does anyone know the status of raises for purely grant funded postdocs and research associates? Is it up to the PI to determine merit amount? Do they get the ATB regardless including retroactively? I am confused on this and trying to plan on my grants…..

    • Old Man 11/26/2013

      Back in the day, University mandated raises applied regardless of the ultimate source of the funding. Probably still true.

    • Anonymous 11/26/2013

      Dog says

      This is an issue. I am not sure anyone really knows officially but some will claim to.

      Here is what I think I know

      a) some grants you can not charge for retroactive salary increases. For one of my RAs on one of my grants
      I know that I can not do this (easily). My plan is to give that RA a future raise that will cover the ATB.

      b) this gets more complicated because when we had a salary freeze, I already had COLA raises built in
      to my grant budget but was unable to give them – its not clear how that works in a retroactive way

      c) the situation might be different for post docs than it is for RAs. Remember, if you increase the salary
      the OPE goes up and for post docs that’s a significant amount.

      its all pretty murky

    • UO Matters 11/26/2013

      If you are paid by UO and in the bargaining unit, you will get the raises. That’s the whole point of the contract. If the granting agency won’t pay them, UO must. Or at least that’s my current understanding.

    • Anonymous 11/26/2013

      Dog says to UOM

      right, that is the issue – if the extra cost can’t be recovered from the grant then will the UO pay that difference?
      This is unclear to me right now.

    • Anonymous 11/28/2013

      The UO is contractually obligated to fund the raises – period. The question of where the money comes from is a different question the admin will have to figure out.

    • Anonymous 11/28/2013

      Dog says

      will they figure that out? 50-50 chance in my view

    • Anonymous 11/29/2013

      They will or an arbitrator will. It isn’t optional.

    • Anonymous 11/29/2013

      and how long will that arbitration take?

  7. Anonymous 11/26/2013

    What is the “fair share” assessment? Does this mean that faculty who are excluded from the union nonetheless have to pay union dues?

    • UO Matters 11/26/2013

      Fair share is what you pay if you are in the “bargaining unit” but did not sign up to join the union.

      When the union FY closes (6/30/2014) there will be an independent audit to determine exactly what FS payments should be. Probably about 85% of what members pay. FS people can then apply for a refund of the diff.

    • Wombat 11/27/2013

      Who pays the independent auditors? (Not being snarky: wondering if this is a new expense for the university, or if it’s paid by the union, in which case it’s hard to see how it’s independent.)

    • UO Matters 11/27/2013

      It’s paid for by the union out of dues, ~$9000. The auditors release a written report and guarantee it with their name and reputation. This is standard practice for unions and for that matter most non-profits and businesses.

  8. Anonymous 11/27/2013

    Non-BU TTF- goat arrived but nothing else.

    • UO Matters 11/27/2013

      What was your hire date?

    • Anonymous 11/27/2013

      Dog Says

      Non-BU got their raises already (as of July 1) – raise level was 5.1% of salary (on average);
      Most departments had uniform merit raises for NON-NU of 2%. 1.5% * 1.5% * 2% = 5.1*

    • Anonymous 11/27/2013

      2011 hire date. did get increases during summer that was quite confusing with retroactive adjustments and separate checks….

  9. Anonymous 11/27/2013

    Dog on pay raises

    the FAQ about salary raises should be in your e-mail box now. If you read it carefully,
    you will notice it still does not address the issue of applicability of raises on Summer Salary.
    If you read it closely you will notice this line:

    If your contract hire date was on or before 31 December 2012, you will receive the second across-the-board raise of 1.5%, retroactive to 1 July 2013. (For those on 9-month contracts, the raise will be retroactive to 16 September 2013.) This raise should be included in your January 2014 paycheck.

    This seems to imply, what I have suspected all along, the faculty summer salary pay is going to be excluded
    from the overall raises. Personally, I don’t give much of a crap about this, but I think it does manifest the incompleteness of the negotiations and therefore I don’t feel fully represented by the Union that I am now in
    despite my PI supervisory rolls …

    • Anonymous 11/29/2013

      I believe if you have summer salary that should be increased, you should contact the person that handles the administration of your summer salary to apply the increase retroactively

  10. Anonymous 11/28/2013

    I thought union dues were to based on taxable income. It looks like they took 1.92% of my gross Nov salary + HEM incentive – PEBB 5% Health Ins. (approximately—I never can agree with Business Office calculations to the penny). So this isn’t based on my taxable income, which is less because of my TDI contribution. Also, they withheld taxes (federal, state, medicare, etc.) on the goat money as well as the retroactive raise. Thoughts on this UO Matters?

    • Anonymous 11/29/2013

      taxes were withheld at the supplementary (i.e. higher rate) on the goat and retroactive increase

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