Surprise! Yesterday you were in a management position but today your title was transferred to union status.
This happened to one of our blog followers and they asked if they were able to fight it.
Well, it happened to me too. And, although I don’t think you can fight this, it may not be a bad thing.
This was the email I received (I removed the effective date – I want you to think of me as young as well as handsome):
So, just like that I was back to being a union employee. My boss was surprised when I told him, who brought it up to his boss. She was surprised. She brought it to HR’s attention where they, too, said they weren’t expecting it either.
It seems that this stuff was going on in what seemed to be “hidden in plain sight”. From an NYC Office of Labor Relations bulletin from September 2015:
So, the unions are petitioning to have certain titles brought under their purview, but I haven’t found any list of titles in question – except for some that were listed in subsequent bulletins . It’s not a comprehensive list by any means. I certainly couldn’t find my title listed in any of them. So if you’re in a management title it too may be up for consideration – and I don’t have any additional info on it…
The Good and the Bad
What does this mean? Well, as listed in my email, some things change and others stay the same.
What stays the same is:
- Your time in service for pension calculations
- Your salary stays the same
- Your Time and Leave accrue at the rate you had as a manager
What changes is:
- You no longer have a flexible schedule (if there is such a thing for a manager). So, rather than working a “general 7 hour day” for example, coming in at an appropriate flexible start time, you now must have a defined start and end time. Coming in late or leaving early now requires use of APPROVED leave time.
- Working earlier or later than your scheduled hours is now either compensatory time (comp time) or Overtime – either needs prior approval to be earned. If you work a seven hour day you can no longer, say, work 9 hours one day and leave after 5 hours the next (for a total of 14 hours over two days).
- If your agency had exclusive benefits for managers, they are no longer available. My agency allows managers to telecommute for up to 10 days per year with prior approval. Now, that would have to be “collectively bargained” with the union and available to all in that title. Ain’t gonna happen.
- You have to pay union dues – but may not be of concern once we talk about union prescription drug plan vs. prescription drug rider for managers…
Sounds like the “short end of the stick”, right? Let’s talk about this…
At my former agency, this happened to several titles other than mine. All of us had the same in-house title, but had different Civil Service Titles (see this post for in-house vs. civil service titles).
At first they were all upset too. They were advised that overtime was not authorized, but if they stayed late “voluntarily” for meetings they could earn comp time.
Well, you wouldn’t believe the amount of comp time earned! My colleagues were earning weeks and weeks of comp time. Some, with the proper advance scheduling, were able to take 3-4 weeks at a time – without using any annual leave!
When I calculated the amount of after-hours work I did in one particular calendar year at that agency, I would have earned 14 WEEKS of comp time. Who was getting the short end of the stick now…
Then there’s the Prescription Drug plans . Managers have to pay for an optional rider to get a prescription drug plan. From the 2018 cost chart for bi-weekly paid employees, the cheapest was for GHI-CBP at $86.99 per bi-weekly check, with the other plans increasing in price. For DC37 union employees, it’s included with your union dues. I pay about $34 per check for union dues and receive comparable service. You also get dental, prescription eyeglasses, free legal help, and many other benefits.
And, if you retire prior to being eligible for Medicare, as a union employee, your benefits continue with no dues. Managers have to continue to pay for the rider in order to keep prescription drug coverage at least until they are eligible for Medicare part D.
My recent agency was a bit more flexible with comp time and overtime. I was able to earn both. For years I worked hours and hours over my 35 hour week as a manager. I knew it was needed and expected as part of the job. But, boy it was sure nice to now get compensated for it. I was able to accrue both time and earn ca$h overtime, which the cash earnings will increase your salary towards your retirement calculations (with limits).
As far as other retirement aspects, retiring as a manager allows you to receive cash for your leave time, in a lump sum. But it is calculated in value as when it was earned. From what I am told, the time you use while actively working is the most recently earned (first in – first out). So your leave time, if paid out on retirement, will be calculated at the rate back when it was earned. So if you make $30 an hour now, but earned time back when you earned $15, guess what you will be paid…
Retiring as a union employee requires you to use your remaining leave time as “terminal leave”. This effectively keeps you “on the books” until you use your time out hour-for-hour for annual leave, and one hour for every two for sick leave – including time earned as a manager. This could add up to weeks of additional time off, extending your retirement date further out, allowing you to have slightly more time in the retirement system and a maybe a few more bucks in your pension.
And lastly, union employees usually receive the collectively bargained raises before managers do. Many times I’ve had to wait for the unions to settle and the union employees to get their raises before I got one. In some cases the managers didn’t get a raise and even lost some benefits.
So, if you’re in this position of being converted from a manager title into a union title, stay cool and think about it. The benefits may outweigh the disadvantages.
Questions and comments welcomed below.
