The Sacramento Bee Covers State Workers’ Payroll Delays. After speaking with CASE President Tim O’Connor regarding issues with the state’s payroll system, the Sacramento Bee published an article titled, “Delays in raises for state attorneys highlight persistent flaws in California’s payroll system.”
“O’Connor, the president of California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment, was scheduled to receive a 4.5% raise in July. As a civil litigator for the State Compensation Insurance Fund, O’Connor reached the top of his salary range over a year ago, which meant he was eligible for the nearly five percent increase in pay. But when his July paycheck arrived it was no bigger than the previous months.
Hundreds of CASE members experienced a similar shock, O’Connor said. While many of those payroll issues have been corrected by individual departments, some have still not fixed the issue, he said. Beyond the nominal dollar amount, ‘It’s more the principle of the thing,’ the attorney union president said.
‘A lot of our members feel that we are underpaid compared to other government sectors,’ O’Connor said. ‘So at least pay us what you agreed to pay us on time.’
The payroll issues impacted member’s confidence in the union, O’Connor said. There is no excuse that this regular-occurring error hasn’t been corrected, he added.”
To read the article in full, click here.
CASE Member Backpay Victory. On May 28, 2024, a worker’s compensation judge noticed they had not received the 5% monthly pay differential they were owed upon completion of the Division of Workers’ Compensation Judges Training on October 9, 2014, which is a violation of Article 5.11 National Judicial College Differential of the Bargaining Unit 2 MOU. This 5% monthly pay differential should have been included in the member’s pay beginning with the November 2014 pay period all the way through the March 2024 pay period. To remedy this disparity, CASE went through an informal process with DIR, resulting in DIR awarding the member thousands of dollars in backpay.
We want to remind CASE members to review their pay warrants every month to avoid potential backpay issues. If you believe your pay warrant is in error, be sure to contact CASE immediately.
Telework Grievance Arbitration Update. The Telework Grievance Arbitrations for the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) and the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) have concluded. Closing briefs are due on August 15, 2024, for FTB and September 13, 2024, for CDTFA. CASE expects the arbitrators in these matters to issue their decisions approximately 60 days after receiving the closing briefs. We will update the membership once we have received the arbitrator’s decisions on these matters.
2024 Special Salary Adjustments. The CASE Board and staff would like to thank everyone that contacted CASE regarding the lack of implementation by their department of the Special Salary Adjustment (SSA.) CASE has heard from several departments that the SSAs should have been keyed in last week and that pay will issue once the SSA is keyed in. CASE will continue to monitor those departments to ensure they are promptly correcting this oversight.
Attorney III Special Salary Adjustments. CASE has also received a number of inquiries from members regarding the 10% SSA for Attorney IIIs and wanted to provide some background information on this and the Attorney III classification.
- There are some departments that do not have Attorney IVs and Vs. These departments believe that the work they perform does not necessarily lend itself to the higher level work performed by IV and V. Therefore, the highest level of attorney at these departments is the Attorney III. Even though these attorneys perform the highest level of legal work for their department, the departments have not seen fit to recognize the work of their attorneys by pursuing the creation of IV and V level positions that would allow the attorneys the opportunity to promote.
- Some departments are extremely small and/or have small legal offices. There are several small Boards, Commissions, etc. that only have one attorney or a handful of attorneys. It is not uncommon for the highest level attorney to be at the III level.
- There are still many departments that do not actively promote attorneys. Historically, we had a lot of members “stuck” at the III level because their departments did not actively try to obtain higher level attorney classifications or were not interested in promoting attorneys in place. Overall, this is not as bad as it once was, but we are aware of some departments that simply refuse to promote their attorneys.
- Until the creation of the Attorney IV about 30-35 years ago, the IIIs were the highest level attorney and they were expected to be, and still are expected to be, subject matter experts at their departments.
Because of these scenarios, there has been a lot of movement by Attorney IIIs to other departments for the sole purpose of promoting. This results in departments losing experienced and knowledgeable attorneys to other departments because they are unable to compete with the higher salary offered to the IVs and Vs. It is also when many attorneys leave state service for other employment because they are “stuck” at the Attorney III level, cannot promote at their department because the department does not have the work of a IV or V and/or the department refuses to try to obtain higher level positions, and there is really nowhere else for them to go within the state unless they transfer to another department.
Our members are proud of the work they do, truly believe in what they do, and the service they provide to the State and people of California. They do not want to leave their department but feel they have no other choice but to transfer to a different department or leave state service. Thankfully, the state finally recognized this in the last bargaining cycle and were willing to agree to the 10% SSA for the Attorney III classifications.
Should you have any suggestions or comments for the next bargaining cycle, please submit them to https://calattorneys.org/members/mou-suggestion-box/.
CASE Summer Baseball Series Is Here! The CASE Board is pleased to invite you to an exclusive series of summer socials at the ballpark - just for CASE Members and their families. We are inviting members to join us at games across the state. For a discounted price of $15-20, you will get the chance to participate in a great summer tradition and build camaraderie with your fellow CASE Members. Here is the schedule:
- San Francisco Giants on Tuesday September 3 at 6:45 pm, Lower Box Section 127
- Los Angeles Angels on Friday September 13 at 6:38 pm, Section 107
- Sacramento River Cats on Friday September 20 at 6:45 pm, Section 123
- Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday September 25 at 7:10 pm, Section 39RS
Tickets are limited, so buy yours today at https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/case-summer-baseball-series-3562059
MOU Suggestion Box. While we are a year away from the next round of bargaining, it’s never too soon to collect ideas for future negotiations. You have access to our MOU Suggestion Box, a place for members – and ONLY members – to contribute ideas for new or improved benefits and MOU terms at any time. We are, of course, aware of the need for the Governor to address continuing salary lags (both within the unit and between state service and local government jobs), so we are hoping to collect your ideas on non-salary MOU items. To complete a suggestion card, click here. (pw: membersmatter22).
REMINDERS
Tracking Return-to-Office Mandates. Your feedback on the impact of return-to-office mandates is invaluable in helping CASE prepare to meet and confer with departments and agencies as well as preparing grievances and for arbitration as necessary. Consider sharing the impact of the proposed policy changes with us via this form.