University Times

The Staff Association Council (SAC) is proposing non-monetary compensation alternatives for staff in lieu of salary raises for fiscal year 2010.

In March, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg announced there would be no increase in the salary pool in FY10. (See March 5 University Times.)

According to Monika Losagio, chair of SAC’s salary and job classification committee, the staff council this week sent a request to Provost James Maher, who chairs the university planning and budgeting committee. UPBC, which is composed of administrators, faculty, staff and students, annually makes recommendations to the chancellor on salary and other budget issues.

“That letter has requested alternatives to salary increases, non-monetary compensation such as additional personal days, [adding] the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or a fall holiday break. This request is only for FY10, not indefinitely,” Losagio reported at the May 6 SAC meeting.

“We have requested also that the University administration consider early retirement packages for staff members, such as those that have been used in the past for faculty. We are not asking to define those packages — we know sometimes they can be cost-prohibitive — but we’d like to see if there are alternatives that can be cost-savings measures for the University. We feel there’s no harm in asking,” she said.

Losagio also reported that SAC’s request for statistics on employee layoffs, reduction in percentage of effort and attrition was answered by Ron Frisch, associate vice chancellor of Human Resources.

“We received a response on May 4 from Ron Frisch regarding our request for personnel statistics. Because of confidentiality issues, we are not able to present that information to SAC as a whole,” or to the University Times, Losagio said. “But we did get a response to our request.”

She reported that HR agreed to continue to benchmark staff salaries in order to evaluate pay ranges, a practice that has been in place for several years.

Sherry Viann Shrum, chair of the benefits committee, reported that her group is developing two proposals.

“One is for the University to implement a give-back of sick leave policy. If you want, you can donate sick days to a pool for other people who are undergoing hardship, who have already used up all their sick time, vacation time and personal time and who are not ready to go back to work for medical reasons. They can get additional time off from the pool,” Shrum reported.

“The other proposal is to have a ‘vacation day purchasing option,’ where you could purchase extra vacation days,” with pay reduced based on the employee’s daily wage equivalent, Shrum said.

Steve Zupcic, co-chair of the benefits committee, added, “The option to purchase additional vacation days is offered at Duquesne University. This can actually be a cost-saver, because the University is able to retain money” earmarked for salaries, he said.
He noted that any such policy at Pitt would need to have certain limits and an approval structure in place.

If SAC’s benefits committee approves either proposal, it then would go to SAC’s steering committee for review and approval before being voted on by SAC members.

In other SAC developments:

• Annabelle Clippinger, elections committee chair, announced that 17 staff members had been approved by Human Resources to join SAC. (See related story this issue 6.)

New members serve as associate members for six months. Associates are non-voting members who can serve on SAC standing committees as members or co-chairs, but not as chairs.

“We have, according to our bylaws, a ceiling of 75 members and with the new members we will exceed 75. It will [fall] to the new officers, the new leaders, to determine how they’re going to address the bylaws: whether to change the bylaws, or to have [the new members] be on a rotating basis,” Clippinger said.

Following her report, Clippinger resigned as chair of elections to avoid a conflict of interest since she is running for an officer position.

Pamela Weid, co-chair of the committee, was named acting chair during the election cycle, which runs to June 17.

• Marissa Arlet, program and planning committee chair, reported that upcoming events include the Council of Campuses meeting on June 3 and 4, a new member orientation luncheon July 22 and the annual Kennywood picnic Aug. 1.

The annual Council of Campuses brings together staff leaders from Pitt’s five campuses on a rotating basis. The Pittsburgh campus is this year’s host.

• Peggy McNeil, chair of governance, reported that the committee has tabled the issue of compiling a list of members who need to be reminded of their committee attendance commitments, pending the election of new officers.

—Peter Hart