Password Changed. Effective Thursday, April 22, 2021, the password to the Members-Only sections of the website will be changed to ChooseCAPS! – it is case-sensitive. Please do not forward this message, or any other CAPS Updates, to nonmembers. All dues-paying CAPS members receive these messages from CAPS. If they don’t, have them contact CAPS directly (caps@capsscientists.org) to get that fixed!
Salary Range Placement Correction. All scientific classifications with ranges, such as the Environmental Scientist classification, can be reviewed for a range placement correction. Many State Scientists have years of scientific experience prior to joining state service: whether it was in a professional, research or internship setting, it may count when it comes to your range placement at your time of hire. You do not have to wait a year to file a range placement correction!
How Do the Departments Determine Salary Range? Placement in a range is typically determined by an Alternate Range Criteria and is different per classification. The most common classification with ranges is Environmental Scientist with Ranges A, B and C. The Alternate Range Criteria for Environmental Scientist is 430, which is listed on the CalHR Pay Scales chart as “AR Crit,” you can view it here.
How Can I Appeal my Range Placement? Simply contact your local CAPS office and speak with a labor consultant. CAPS staff will typically request some items from you that may include your application from your time of hire and an updated resume. After review, staff may submit a Merit Issue Complaint on your behalf. This starts at the Department level. If the Department denies the first claim, it can be appealed to the State Personnel Board. If the complaint is appealed through the State Personnel Board the response may take upwards of six months, but the wait can be worth it!
What happens if the claim is successful? If your claim is granted you may be looking at back pay from your time of hire! Dependent upon which range you started in and when you were hired, you can be looking at a good lump sum in back pay – the largest amount ever gained for a member by CAPS was $20,000! While not all cases are granted, it is worth the effort to ensure that you were correctly placed at your time of hire. If you believe you have scientific experience, equivalent to the work you were hired to do in complexity and scope, that was not counted toward your initial range placement, contact CAPS (caps@capsscientists.org).
Recruit a New Member, Earn a Recruitment Incentive. CAPS offers a $50 incentive for recruiting new members, whether they are Rank-and-File, Supervisory or Managerial State Scientists. The online membership application form can be located on the CAPS website at http://capsscientists.org/application. It only takes a few minutes to sign up. Make sure the applicant fills in the “referred by” field to receive your bonus!
News Briefs.
California expanding nepotism rule to cover exes and domestic partners in hiring guidelines - Sacramento Bee. Domestic partners and ex-spouses would fall under California state government’s nepotism rule under a new State Personnel Board proposal. The board, which is crafting a rule that would require all state departments to adopt anti-nepotism policies, recently tweaked its proposed definition of nepotism to cover the new categories of relationships based on public feedback.
State workers passed over for promotions would get 1 year to file challenges under new rule – Sacramento Bee. California state employees who believe they were improperly passed over for a promotion would have a year to challenge their departments’ decisions under a proposed new rule. As it stands, there’s no statewide deadline by which employees must file merit issue complaints with their departments, according to background information posted with the new proposal on the State Personnel Board website.
In Review. Check out what you may have missed from past CAPS Updates here:
April 14, 2021. Getting the Ball Rolling to Restore Salaries. The CAPS Team passed proposals related to the PLP 2020 Side Letter Agreement, as a package, to prompt CalHR to discuss ending PLP 2020 and to restore the temporarily-suspended 5% GSI and make it retroactive to July 1, 2020. The proposals included a new contract section, 2.1.2, Return of Suspended General Salary Increase; the deletion of 2.1.1, Contract Reopener Language; and the modification of 3.23, Personal Leave Program 2020.
Read other past messages on the CAPS Website here: http://capsscientists.org/members/caps-member-updates/. The password until April 22, 2021 is Winter2020 – it IS case-sensitive.
Choose Unity. Choose Strength. Choose CAPS!