Published Date: 2020-05-29
CAPT meets with CalHR over employee compensation reduction
CAPT is committed to keeping the membership informed as developments occur regarding the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the state and our bargaining unit. As you know, Governor Newsom recently released his proposed state budgetary revisions, known as the May Revise. As previously reported, the governor’s latest budget proposal projects an estimated $54 billion deficit, whereas the January budget projected a $5.6 billion surplus. As we all know, the deficit is a result of the economic ramifications and loss of state revenue caused by the nearly unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. On May 14, Governor Newsom proposed reducing state worker compensation by ten percent through the collective bargaining process.
The ten percent funding cut to Bargaining Unit 18 amounts to $58 million. CAPT met with representatives from the state on May 26 to negotiate how best to achieve this reduction with a minimal economic impact on our members. The state representatives echoed the governor’s move to reduce employee compensation by 10 percent for the duration of the current fiscal emergency. When pressed by CAPT on how the state intended to achieve the reduction, the state suggested a furlough-type program of two days per month. Each furlough day is equivalent to a five percent reduction. Furloughs do not affect our base salary, nor do they affect our retirement computations.
The state also made clear, as stated in the governor’s May Revise, that state worker wages would be frozen at their June 2020 levels until further notice. CAPT representatives immediately responded that while the men and women in our bargaining unit are willing to be part of the solution, we also expect, as essential personnel working in the state prisons, hospitals, and developmental centers, that our contract and all of its provisions, bargained in good faith, be honored.
As state president, it is my duty to impress upon the state’s team, the governor’s administration, and legislators that BU 18 Psych Techs up and down California cannot “shelter at home” during this unprecedented pandemic. Our CAPT Brothers and Sisters go to work each day bearing upon their shoulders the genuine risk of contracting COVID-19 at work and possibly infecting their loved ones at home.
We have been classified as critical to the state’s operations; we have been deemed an essential workforce; we have been made exempt from the Families First Corona Virus Response Act; yet, we are expected to take it on the chin.
CAPT is insisting that our negotiated contract be signed and that the provisions be honored. CAPT is putting out the call to action. Raise your voice in support of your fellow Psych Techs, your CAPT Brothers and Sisters, and demand that we are treated as the essential workers the state espouses to honor. It is time for the state to honor us with its actions and not with empty words. It is time for the state to treat us as humans, as professionals, and as the essential workers we have always been, deserving of respect and dignity. We need every one of our members, our family members, and our neighbors, to contact their state legislator and tell them to treat Psych Techs fairly. To find your legislators, visit http://www.legislature.ca.gov/your_legislator.html.
Please contact your local chapter to express your concerns.
May 28, 2020 | Download Flier
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