CAPS Noticed Of State’s Plan For Raises for 2021. Yesterday, the State noticed all unions that represent “excluded” employees, like CAPS Supervisors and Managers, of their proposed end to PLP 2020. For Unit 10 Supervisory and Managerial State Scientists, they have announced their plan to end PLP 2020, effective July 1, 2020, mirror the raise given to Rank-and-File State Scientists (7.63%), and, like Rank-and-File will restart OPEB contributions.
Meet and Confer Later This Month. The CAPS Supervisor’s Committee will be meeting with representatives of the Administration, CalHR, later this month to hold our annual Meet-and-Confer with the State. Rest assured, we will be discussing the end of PLP 2020 (and any additional terms that go along with that), the need for all State Scientist Supervisors and Managers to be compensated equitably, telework and several other items. We’ll share our proposals after the meeting. Stay tuned!
Supervisors and Managers Meet and Confer for Benefits. Supervisors, and other so-called “excluded” employees, are not covered by the Dills’ Act – the act that established the Collective Bargaining System within State Service. Rather, “excluded” employees are covered by the Excluded Employee’s Bill of Rights, which governs how the union can Meet-and-Confer, but not bargain, with the State Employer over the same things over which we bargain for the Rank-and-File, wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. This is the reason Supervisors do not receive the same communications as Rank-and-File CAPS Members.
The Bargaining Updates only go to the Rank-and-File because CAPS’ bargaining efforts, and any subsequent Memorandum of Understanding (MOU, or Agreement) only covers the Rank-and-File. Excluded employees’ rights are not written out in a contract, but rather are found throughout the CalHR Manual, Government Code, Labor Code, California Code of Regulations, and a host of other places.
Additional Recent Items For Supervisors. CAPS represents supervisory members in all individual and group representational situations, too. The most recent departmental item that CAPS began hearing from several supervisory members was that issues had begun to spring forth out of the creation of the new Department of Cannabis Control (DCC), effective July 1, 2021. As such, CAPS sent a survey to affected supervisory and managerial members to request their input. CAPS has requested a Meet-and-Confer to hopefully address these supervisors’ questions ahead of the transition.
News Updates.
Nearly 2 Million NorCal Residents Are Already Under A Water Shortage Emergency – CBS 13 (Sacramento). Nearly two million people in the San Francisco Bay Area have been placed under a water shortage emergency Wednesday as the state grapples with worsening drought conditions.
Cheapest CalPERS health insurance plans will cost 23% more next year, projections show – The Sacramento Bee (tiered subscription). Prices are going up 23% next year for California public employees enrolled in some of CalPERS’ cheapest health insurance plans, according to preliminary rates published Tuesday. The increase amounts to $120 per month more for a single person, the largest of several hikes projected for CalPERS’ cheaper offerings in 2022. Its more expensive plans, on the other hand, will drop in price by up to 15% under the new rate-setting program. On average, prices are projected to increase 5.68% for all the insurance plans CalPERS offers, with premiums going up more for PPOs. The cost for CalPERS’ most popular plan, a Kaiser HMO, will increase 2.68%. CalPERS Board is on schedule to approve next year’s healthcare rates in July.
In Review. May 28, 2021. May Revise Information. Since the Governor released his May Budget Revision on May 14, CAPS has been diligently reviewing it for more information. Here is what we know so far: It confirms what CAPS has been grilling the Department of Finance about for months: the State has more money than they’ve let on. The revised State Budget projects a $75.7 billion surplus for the 2021-22 fiscal year, beginning July 1. There is also $26 billion in federal COVID-19 stimulus funding to draw upon. This information comes as no surprise, as media outlets have been reporting on the so-called “windfall” since at least January.
Since then, CAPS has repeatedly requested the State reopen the COVID-19 Side Letter Agreement for discussions in keeping with the terms CAPS negotiated. Then, in April, the CAPS Bargaining Team worked to jump-start the discussion by passing proposals that, if agreed to, would have ended PLP 2020 effective May 1, 2021, and retroactively reinstated the 5% GSI to July 1, 2020. Until now, the Department of Finance and CalHR have responded that the true amounts of funding available were unclear and that they’d know more once the May Budget Revision was released. Now that those numbers are published, CAPS anticipates sharing more concrete information with the membership after our next meeting. Stay tuned.
Read the rest of the entries, or see what else you may have missed on the CAPS Website here: https://capsscientists.org/supervisors/. The password is S10CAPS – it IS case-sensitive.
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