During the past two years, a lot has been happening regarding supervisory and managerial compensation. Due to the ongoing economic recession and massive state budget deficits, most of it hasn’t been good.  The following summarizes PECG’s representation activities on your behalf during this time.

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Management likes to refer to you as an “unrepresented” employee.  This is not true.  By law, you have full civil service rights and are represented by PECG for salaries, benefits, and working conditions.  You are “excluded” from the collective bargaining process, which means you are not in a Bargaining Unit and are not covered by a Memorandum of Understanding or MOU.  Your bargaining rights are not nearly as strong as those of Unit 9 employees, also represented by PECG, but you are covered by the more informal meet and confer process provided by law. 

Thus, not surprisingly, much of your salary and benefit improvements in recent years are the result of PECG’s legislative efforts and the upward movement caused by Unit 9 contracts or MOUs negotiated by PECG.  For three years, unlike other supervisors and managers in state service, you received substantial salary increases -- 7.7% in 2005, 12.4% in 2006, and 14.1% in 2007.  These were the highest increases received by any Unit 9 employees (or any other state employees) and were applied to PECG represented supervisors and managers across the board. 

However, in 2008, the Governor and his Department of Personnel Administration (DPA) refused to provide you with the 10.1% salary increase paid to top level Unit 9 employees, even though there was funding for the raise in the state budget.  PECG sought and received support from several state department heads and others, but the administration refused to budge. 

In 2009, PECG filed a claim for the pay raises, based on the statutory requirement of equal pay for comparable duties.  This resulted in a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). This turned into a lengthy process which has still not been completed.  Even if the ALJ concludes that you provide comparable duties to those of your Unit 9 counterparts at the Senior level, the DPA Director could accept or reject that recommendation and funding would have to be provided in the state budget.  Thus, while the hearing process can provide a factual basis for complying with the provisions of the statute, the raises can still be paid or denied based on the position of the Governor and the willingness of the Legislature to appropriate funds.  

Meanwhile, the Legislature and the Governor were facing $20 billion to $40 billion annual state General Fund budget deficits due to the continuing recession.  The Governor sought to impose compensation cuts for state employees as part of the solution.  He asked the Legislature to give him the authority to impose furloughs.  When they refused, in December 2008, he issued an Executive Order to put almost all state employees on unpaid furloughs.  

PECG was the first organization to go to court to challenge that Executive Order, which required two days per month of furloughs beginning in February 2009.  The Legislature passed a 16-month state budget that same month.  In July 2009, the Governor increased the furloughs to three days per month which was reflected in a revised state budget. 

PECG’s lawsuit, which was later joined by other organizations, reached the Supreme Court and was ruled on in early October.  While the Court concluded the Governor did not have the authority to order furloughs in December 2008, the Legislature authorized them in the state budget when it approved some employee compensation spending cuts in 2009.  Constitutionally, the Legislature is prohibited from granting authority or taking other legislative action when approving a budget, but that’s what the Court ruled. 

PECG has another lawsuit challenging the furloughs in Alameda Superior Court, based on the improper furlough of employees paid through special funds to address a general fund problem, as well as provisions of the Labor Code and other state laws.  The Superior Court judge agreed with PECG and issued a restraining order, which was set aside while the Supreme Court considered PECG’s initial lawsuit.  Whether the Alameda case will proceed or whether other actions can be filed is unclear at this moment.  For example, in the October 2010 state budget, the Legislature sought to retroactively authorize the Governor’s imposition of furloughs in August and September. That may be subject to challenge as well. 

The Governor also sought to impose minimum wage on almost all state employees in the absence of a state budget in July and August as a pressure tactic, along with furloughs, on the Legislature to pass a budget and on PECG and other state employee organization to reach agreement on the Governor’s bargaining demands.  State Controller John Chiang refused to reduce paychecks to minimum wage.  That issue is currently in the courts, with PECG and other state employee organizations joining with the State Controller in opposing the Governor’s efforts.  The issue has not yet been resolved by the courts and the next ruling is anticipated early next year.  

PECG also sponsored legislation to provide a “continuous appropriation” to pay full salaries on time regardless of the absence of a state budget, but that bill did not pass due to unanimous opposition from Republican legislators.   

Fifteen of the state’s twenty-one bargaining units have reached agreement with the Governor on new contracts extending to 2012 or 2013.  PECG is one of the six organizations which have not reached agreement.  The new contracts essentially authorizes one day of self directed furloughs or personal leave per month for a year, nine furlough days, an increase in the PERS contribution by employees of 3% to 5% of salary, and an equivalent increase in the top step of salary ranges in 2012 or 2013. 

What about supervisors and managers?  The Governor just issued an Executive Order imposing conditions similar to that reached by SEIU Local 1000 for its bargaining units.  Beginning November 1, the three day per month furloughs will end for supervisors and managers, to be replaced by a 3% increase in the contribution to the PERS pension plan, one day of personal leave program (self directed unpaid furlough) per month for a year and two days of professional development, to be used like vacation.  The Executive Order also provides for no pay increase until a 3% increase in the top step of each salary range in July 2013.  However, as this Governor leaves office in January, all of that will be subject to negotiations with the new Governor.

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These are difficult economic times.  We have been dealing with a Governor who has become increasingly hostile toward public servants as his term nears its end.  The bargaining rights for supervisors and managers are less than those of the bargaining units, which have also encountered serious difficulties in trying to even maintain reasonable pay and benefits.  However, we have been successful in negotiating significant pay increases for you in recent years, far above those received by other supervisors and managers.  We will seek to continue to do so as a new administration and Legislature take office in January and the various court proceedings and other efforts continue. 

Your Supervisory Meet and Confer Team consists of state employed engineers and related professionals, just like you.  You elect the PECG Vice President, Supervisory.  The other members of the team are appointed by the PECG President and Vice President.  We work for various state agencies throughout California, just like you.  We are assisted by the very best professional negotiators, attorneys, lobbyists, and other specialists, but we are volunteers who make decisions on your behalf based on your input and the realities of what we face.  Each of PECG’s seventeen sections throughout the state also elect a section Vice President Supervisory to assist and work with us to ensure that we are most effectively representing you and your interests. 

We sincerely appreciate your continued membership in PECG and your support of our efforts on your behalf.  About half of the supervisors are members, and about half are not.  We would encourage you to forward this email to a supervisory nonmember, or print out a copy and give it to him or her.  Encourage them to go to the PECG website and join PECG.  They can get information like this on a regular basis, elect the officers who represent them, and know that their dues will be used to represent their interests. 

Our success depends on the unity and support of all engineering and related professionals who are supervisors and managers in state service.  Membership in PECG is an important step in achieving that unity and support needed for future success.

Sincerely,

Your PECG Supervisory Meet and Confer Team

Cathrina Barros, Caltrans, Chair
Stefan Cajina, Public Health
Refugio Dominguez, Caltrans
Mili Lim Stamation, Caltrans
Joseph Mello, Water Resources Control Board
Mark Miller, Caltrans