[ Golden Gater Online - September 11, 1997 ]
Half a million dollars earmarked for university departments is being set aside to reimburse SF State employees for illegally-withheld merit pay, according to university officials and court documents.
According to Leroy Morishita, executive director of budget planning and resource management, the money comes from the general fund.
"No programs are going to be cut," said Morishita, but he did not specify what effect the $500,000 loss would have on departments.
The back pay has been the issue of a yearlong battle between the California State University system and the California State Employees Association over who should be paid, and how much..
According to court documents, the CSU unlawfully withheld merit-pay adjustments for thousands of its employees during 11 months in 1992 and 1993. After the CSEA sued the CSU over this issue, the state Court of Appeal -- in a 1996 ruling -- ordered the CSU to reimburse the affected employees.
Sam Strafaci, senior director of human resources at the Chancellor's Office, said that each campus is responsible for providing back pay for its employees.
"The main office is going to help [each campus] with approximately half of it," Strafaci said
William Insley, deputy division director of the CSU division of the CSEA, said approximately 400 employees at SF State are eligible to receive back pay.
"This affects a whole lot of people -- some of whom are gone," said Ilze Goodfield, bargaining unit 7 counsel representative of the Service Employees International Union Local 1000. Statewide, some 5,000 employees are affected and the CSU faces more than $24 million in back pay, Insley said
"This could mean $5,000 to $6,000 for some employees -- that's a lot of money," he said.
In a plan adopted in June by the Public Employment Relations Board, the affected employees will receive the 5 percent pay raise they were entitled to during the 11-month period. Also, subsequent pay increases will be recalculated according to the adjusted salaries.
But according to Insley, it's extremely difficult for the CSU to determine who exactly is eligible for back pay. Every employee's file must be checked and people who are no longer working for the CSU must be tracked down. Strafaci said the CSU and the CSEA have been exchanging lists of eligible employees for some time now.
"We are at a point where there is no major obstacle -- we just need to find out who is missing," he said.
However, Jerrie McIntyre, job steward and treasurer of Chapter 305 of the CSEA, said "we [the union] are still finding quirky little things -- people who are not on the list but who should be."
A preliminary list containing the names of employees at SF State who are eligible or ineligible to receive back pay can be reviewed on the fourth floor of the J. Paul Leonard Library in the government documents section.
Alexandra Katz, academic programs office coordinator, who is one of the employees eligible for back pay, said that she is really grateful to the union for going to court over this issue -- meaning the back pay.
"I am happy to get paid. It is wonderful," she said.
[ Golden Gater - September 11, 1997 ]