Keeping you up-to-date on our work to increase your salary, improve and protect your benefits, and aggressively represent your professional interests in every forum where they are at stake.
CASE BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ UPDATE
Attorney Class Consolidation Project Update. Yesterday, the State Personnel Board adopted a plan proposed by CalHR to delay implementation of the Attorney class consolidation plan from February 1, 2023 to June 1, 2023. As you will recall, CalHR’s failure to properly plan ahead regarding attorney classification examinations resulted in a notification to Departments at the end of January that CalHR intended to take all impacted Attorney, Deputy Attorney General, and related classifications’ examinations offline for 6-month period to allow for potential retooling of the exams. CalHR heard swift and negative responses from CASE and most state agencies regarding this planned exam blackout period.
CASE met with CalHR frequently over the last several weeks to address the situation. CalHR raised the idea of asking SPB to delay implementation, which would allow the pre-consolidation class specifications and minimum qualifications to stay in place and allow CalHR to keep the current exams online while developing replacement exams created using the revised specifications and minimum qualifications. This would have negatively impacted members in Attorney I and DAG I (and related) classifications who would be due range changes under the revised alternate range criteria approved by the Board in January. This was simply unacceptable to CASE.
CalHR indicated its willingness to negotiate a side letter providing Attorney I and DAG I (and related) incumbents in Ranges A and B with a 5% pay differential during the delayed implementation period, but initially refused to include Range C incumbents who would also, by virtue of the revised alternate range criteria, be due a move to what is currently Range D. CASE successfully negotiated a side letter that secured significant concessions from CalHR, including:
- Incumbents in Ranges A, B, and C of entry-level Attorney positions with alternate ranges will receive a 5% differential during the delayed implementation period – from February 1 through May 31, 2023. As of June 1, 2023, when the consolidation plan is implemented, incumbents will formally move into revised ranges under the new alternate range criteria.
- CalHR agreed to use the base salary plus differential when calculating new salaries for any incumbent who promotes during the delayed implementation period.
- CalHR also agreed to meet monthly to provide CASE updates on the implementation process, so that we can be assured that they will request no further delays.
- CalHR shortened the implementation timeline from an initial 6-months, to 4-months, with a new implementation date of June 1, 2023.
While this resolution does not eliminate the harm caused by CalHR’s several failures related to the consolidation project, their significant concessions – especially mitigating the harm to those who would suffer guaranteed economic harm from delayed range changes – prompted CASE to lift its opposition to the plan. CASE will monitor consolidation implementation progress through June, as well as the differentials owed to those due range changes under the executed side letter. We’ll provide further updates regarding the differential in future editions of CASE Files.
CASE Officer Update. CASE Vice President Jaclyn Grossman has accepted a position as an Assistant Chief Counsel with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. While we celebrate her promotion, she is no longer able to serve as a CASE Board Member as a management employee. We are saddened by her departure from the CASE Board, and we thank Vice President Grossman for her tireless advocacy on behalf of CASE Members at the Bargaining Table and in the Boardroom.
Pursuant to CASE Bylaws, the Board this week appointed Ryan Smith, currently a CASE Director, to Vice President to fulfill the remainder of the current term which expires this fall. Vice President Smith is a DAG IV at the Department of Justice.
CALPERS CORNER
Watch CalPERS. Want to follow CalPERS Board of Administration meetings? There are two options available. When the board is in session, this link opens a live-stream on the fund’s website. Then, approximately 48 hours after the meeting concludes, staff posts a recording to the CalPERS YouTube channel. The board met Monday and Tuesday of this week, so the digital record will be posted on Thursday. (Open this page to see the board’s 2023 meetings calendar.) Earlier meetings are also archived on YouTube.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
News of interest to Unit 2 legal professionals:
- Whistleblower suit against birth control provider leads to $18 million settlement in California – The Sacramento Bee (tiered subscription)
- California lawsuit targets insulin costs as Biden also takes aim in SOTU – Med City News
- California Workers’ Comp Board denies state department’s petition for reconsideration – Human Resources Director