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SAC Responds to Staff Questions on the
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These items were anonymously submitted The gaslight theatre is only $16.95 for adults. Why are the SAC tickets more expensive? Funds raised by Staff Advisory Council sponsoring a Night at the Gaslight Theater on Tuesday/May 6, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. will go to the Emily Krauz Staff Endowment Scholarship When you nominate someone for the Staff Awards for Excellence letters of support are required for the nominee, does the person nominating also write a letter or do the letters just come from other people? That is entirely up to the nominator. Anyone may write a letter of support. I'm trying to find a way to do a compassionate transfer of leave for an employee who is off intermittently due to chemotherapy. HR says the person has to be off for a minimum of 45 days in a row. I'm hoping someone has an idea for another way to help out a good employee.
I've never heard of the 45 day rule
you mentioned HR informed you about, you may want to
review HR policy # 201.1 @
http://www.hr.arizona.edu/09_rel/policies/pp201-1.php.
But here is a quick statement on CTL eligibility:
Employees who are eligible to receive
compassionate transfer of leave contributions are those
who are eligible to earn and use vacation hours, have
exhausted all forms of paid leave (e.g. vacation, paid
sick time and compensatory time) prior to the transfer
of leave hours, and are not receiving either long term
disability benefits or Workers' Compensation benefits.
The other thing is that the person
has to have certification of a catastrophic illness
(refer to policy). The policy also provides
instructions on the CTL process. The forms that need to
be filled out can be found at:
http://www.hr.arizona.edu/forms.php You will want
to search for:
Compassionate Transfer of Leave
Request Form - to be filled out by the employee needing
the CTL hours
Compassionate Transfer of Leave
Contribution Form - to be filled out by individuals
donating CTL hours
Compassionate Transfer of Leave
Processing Information Form - to report the CTL
Also, the CTL hours donated are
valued at the donor's hourly rate. For example a person
making $20/hr donates to a person who makes $10/hr, the
person receives the equivalent of 2 hours' CTL.
I hope this is helpful but please do
not hesitate to contact SAC if you need further
assistance.
Last year, a benefit was apparently added for State of Arizona employees: a Computer Purchase Program available through payroll deduction. However, it seems this is not available to State University employees at this time. My questions are: why is this program not available to university employees? Will this be added as a benefit at a future time, and if so, when? The State does indeed offer a program for employees to finance the purchase of computers. The program establishes a 'middleman' who connects the employee with one or more of several pre-approved computer hardware/software providers. This program does not offer discounts on purchases. Once the employee selects the item(s) for purchase, the middleman finances the purchase without a credit check and at 0% interest. The employee pays the debt through recurring Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA) payroll deductions. If the employee is in an unpaid status or leaves State employment, the middleman pursues one of the alternative payment arrangements that were identified in the initial financing agreement. The University of Arizona carefully considered whether to offer an employee computer purchase program similar to the one offered by State of Arizona. The UA declined to participate in the program for two main reasons: 1) we do not use the ADOA payroll system, and 2) UA Procurement and Contracting Services has an existing relationship with Gateway through which employees may purchase personal computers.
I am somewhat confused by
the discussion of student minimum wages , since:
a. the state of Arizona minimum wage is $6.75. b. the UA is an entity of the state of Arizona. c. President Likins set a minimum wage to be paid at the UA of $7 per hour a couple of years ago. Can you clarify why this is even discussed?
Since the University is not exempt from changes to the federal minimum wage, it is necessary to make the changes we recently announced. The University of Arizona Minimum Hiring Standard established by former President Likins several years ago has increased to the current rate of $8.50 per hour. This is the minimum pay standard for classified staff job titles used for benefits eligible, long term employment. In contrast, ancillary (temporary and/or intermittent assignments) classified staff titles and student titles are paid no less than the federal minimum wage.
Christy Drake, CCP, SPHR I just received my "Staff Tracks." Is there any way it can be delivered BEFORE the events it advertises have taken place? (posted on 3/7/07) We appreciate your interest in the SAC newsletter and apologize that it did not reach you in a timely manner. The Staff Tracks newsletter is put together by volunteers with material submitted by volunteer writers on their own time that is then mailed out via snail mail to all classified staff which can unfortunately mean there may be a delay. Every effort is made to get this publication to staff on time, but another alternative would be to subscribe to the USC listserve and you will receive timely alerts to electronic versions as soon as they are available along with other notices or interest to staff. I work in a college that has a
high percentage of classified staff taking positions of management and
supervisory responsibility. I am wondering if this is unique across
campus. Rather than being a SAC or APAC issue, this has more to do with how a department or organization values supervision and its function as a standalone activity. If a department or supervisor is not giving "supervising skills" any value or weight in the full performance of duties, then it stands to reason that the department's leadership prefers to focus on other performance measures. On the other hand, it could be that people simply not very skilled in developing performance management systems. Human Resources professionals would agree that "managing others" should be on a supervisor's or manager's reviews as a performance point if they have that responsibility. However, there is no "one size fits all" performance tool that meets the need of all positions or departments, so I don't think it would be effective for SAC to "advocate" the use of a standardized form that includes this performance point. We have several types of performance evaluation templates available on the HR website (including one for those with supervisory responsibilities) and our consulting team has worked with several departments to customize performance evaluations to meet the needs of their unit. Managers and supervisors can be coached and advised about the use of good performance tools, but a "mandate" to use a standardized form does not make good business sense. That being said, this is a good opportunity to stress the need for employees to take ownership of their own careers and work issues. If someone is unhappy with their supervisor's workstyle or if supervisors are not being held accountable for the effective management of others, I don't know if focusing on the structure of a performance review is going to resolve the situation. As you are aware, Human Resources has several resources available to help employees take better control of their work life including "managing your own performance" and career management workshops and one-on-one employee and career advising services. HR hopes SAC will continue to encourage employees to take advantage of these and other services I was put on lay-off status on 3/31/06 as we transitioned our research unit to ASU, and then I had to resign from there because the office relocated, physically to Phoenix. I am now employed, on a temporary basis, at PCC. I'm writing to you because I want to apply for a position, but it is only open to UA Internal Only. Is there not anyway that I can apply for these kinds of positions? I really think it is unfair, given my experience at UA, that I am now prohibited from do so. Please advise me on what kind of steps I can take. (posted on 10/27/06) While the specific language is absent from the lay-off policy itself, people in UA lay-off staff are indeed eligible to apply for UA internal positions only. This is something we discussed awhile ago in HR and determined that it made sense to make these positions available to people who have been placed in lay-off status. I didn't realize until I saw your message, that this information was not included in the lay-off policy. This is very timely, because the lay-off policy is under revision (Linda H. shared the changes with SAC a few months ago) and I can make sure this benefit gets included. In the meantime, please know that you are welcome to submit an application for (the) job. You will be asked a question that reads "What is your current employment status with the University of Arizona? You should check the box that reads "Classified Staff (have completed the probation period OR have received a waiver). I have already inserted a note into the requisition for that position to remind the hiring department that individuals in lay-off status are eligible to apply. For future reference, we'll make the following changes so that this practice is more clear. 1. We will add a bullet to Classified Staff policy 405 http://www.hr.arizona.edu/09_rel/policies/pp405.php under "Other Privileges" to read "Eligible to apply for UA Internal Positions" 2. We will change the 4th response listed to the question "What is your current status with the University of Arizona" so that it will read: Classified Staff (completed probation, received waiver, OR placed in lay-off status) I apologize for the confusion and thank you for alerting to us to the opportunity to provide better procedural and policy clarification. Good luck with your job search!
We spoke w/ Dave (Assoc. Director of Operations) @ P & T. Permit holders for lots 6090, 6091 & 6092 have been asked to use the lots just south of Sixth Street which isn't too far -- and those lots should not be too full as classes have not begun as yet. He did mention that they don't "plan" to ticket anyone this week. Next week, they will begin ticketing but by then this move-in situation will be over (hopefully). Hope that helps. I have an employee in my department who is retiring and will have hours remaining which will be lost. I was wondering if you could give me information on transferring this time over to Compassionate Transfer Leave? (posted 6/9/06) To matching a vacation donor with folks who need CTL one can post the message to various listserves like USC or a listserv for payroll representatives. Check with your department, or the donor can check their payroll rep, or the payroll section of the Financial Services Office to get the info posted to a listserv. [We would be happy to post these requests on the USC listserve... you can contact us at garanda@u.arizona.edu I still have not received my 1500 dollar a year raise. I am paid by grant funding. We are a well funded lab. Our PI says there is no additional personnel money until a new grant is funded. What is the University policy on these. I could not get a clear answer from human resources. Should I get my raise when the new grant cycle comes around or only when a new grant is funded? (posted 5/18/06) I am a UA employee interested in your distance learning program. Does the Tuition reduction apply to the distance learning program? (posted 3/20/06)
Yes, the employee tuition waiver is applicable for the distance
learning program. You will need to submit the form from UA to
the NAU Bursar's Office once you have registered for classes. Rumor has it, UA is the only Arizona University who is taking the 2.5% salary increase and distributing it on their own, rather than across the board. I can guarantee many of the University's employees are most likely going to be extremely upset over this because the people in my department are outraged over this injustice. I just wanted to put it out there and see what SAC is or has been doing about this. (posted 2/9/06) At this point there has been no indication to us that UA employees would be an exception to an "across the board" increase. The Staff Advisory Council stands firmly on "across the board" increases rather than to give credence to a flawed "merit" system. UA SAC members: I was curious if you as a representative group of all classified staff had planned to address the issue of primarily staff positions being eliminated to offset budget cuts? Also, we are interested in speaking to the Provost's office about the upcoming state raises. Staff members realize that the proposed increase will barely cover the increase in retirement benefits that all staff have to pay. Certain pay levels will actually receive no raise at all if the additional 2.5% is not given across the board to all Staff employees. Shall we represent a unified front????? (posted 2/8/06) Your UA Staff Advisory Council has taken a firm stand that the increase be given "across the board." The Council has advocated the "across the board" stance rather than to give any credence to a flawed "merit" system. Of course, you are free to let the Provost know how you feel; we are definitely of the same mind.
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