TPL Agreement Signed!
May 20, 2008
NOTE: *NAGE will host a TPL meeting Friday, May 23, 2008, from noon to 1:30 p.m. at One Ashburton Place (room behind cafe) to discuss the agreement and answer questions. Lunch will be provided.
After two long years of tough negotiations and the unrelenting determination of the TPL Committee, Unit 6 presidents Theresa McGoldrick and Greg Sorozan, and State Director Kevin Preston, a TPL agreement has been signed.
The Technical Pay Law Agreement, signed by Presidents McGoldrick and Sorozan at 5 p.m. yesterday, will provide raises of up to $13,000 for 120 "TPL" classified state employees. It will also guarantee all 700-plus TPL employees that they will never fall below a certain salary floor.
"We've been pushing for this agreement for a long time—through two administrations," said Local 207 President McGoldrick. "We've finally reached a resolution that's fair to our members and guarantees them salaries and raises that they deserve."
Local 282 President Sorozan agreed. "It was a great victory for us to finally reach this agreement with the Commonwealth. We've been working on it for a long time and it's an agreement that's good for our members and good for the state."
Affected employees will be notified directly by the Human Resources Division of their underlying grade and step placement, and employees will have 30 days to contest the assignment of their grade and/or step. If agreement cannot be reached, we have the right to go to independent arbitration to resolve the dispute.
A request to fund the half-million dollar agreement will be submitted to the Legislature no sooner than June 1, 2008. NAGE negotiated an incentive clause into the agreement to encourage the state to make retroactive payments in a timely manner. The clause states that if employees receive their retroactive pay on or before October 1, 2008, then their salary adjustment will be retroactive to December 1, 2006. If, however, employees receive their sums due after October 1, 2008, then they will receive salary adjustments retroactive to October 6, 2006.
TPL was created by the state "to attract and retain qualified information technology professionals in a highly competitive labor market." It took TPL employees out of the union pay scale, which in some cases, led to significant underpayment. The TPL agreement, which NAGE has been negotiating since the summer of 2006, was initiated in order to create a salary floor below which each TPL employee could not be paid. The salary floor was established by reconstructing the grade and step each TPL employee would be at, if instead of being TPL, they were paid as if they held regular union positions.