The Department of Labor recently posted new rules for exempt employees and the calculation of overtime: https://www.dol.gov/featured/overtime/

UIUC Academic Human Resources posted the following on social media (which may or not indicate an endorsement): http://www.cupahr.org/news/item.aspx?id=13597

While it is understandable in these economic times that universities frame this as a cost issue,  working over 40 hours a week also has unintended consequences and costs for employees and employers (see for example this CDC report from 2004: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2004-143/pdfs/2004-143.pdf). Constantly working longer hours leads to health problems and many times renders the employee less productive than working a standard 40 hour work schedule (http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/working-more-than-40-hours-a-week-makes-you-less-productive-research-suggests-10466958.html)

Requiring employees to pay overtime forces employers to confront those costs rather than pretending that those costs don’t exist (and passing the costs onto the rest of society via increased health expenses and increased morbidity related to overwork).

The university’s work schedule often ebbs and flows — most academic employees know that the busy times of year (with the highest likelihood of overtime) are the start and end of each term as well as the end of the fiscal year (which thankfully occurs in the summer and not in the middle of the semester).  There should not be major problems in adjusting to this as the University of Illinois has access to estimates of overtime for current employees via the positive time reporting mechanism and has many options to prepare before the December 2016 implementation deadline.

Currently, for our unit, only 84 members+ are below the $47,476 salary boundary for overtime eligibility (after December).  If the University moved all 84 individuals salaries to above that threshold that would cost in total about $567,000.00.  It is doubtful that the University would do this. The university, as a public institution, also could utilize comp time (at 1.5) for overtime worked. (for more information: https://www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/overtime-highereducation2.pdf)

The other option would be to ensure employees below that threshold don’t work overtime.  If units are finding they are constantly having to authorize overtime for a given employee, it might be worthwhile to hire another individual on a .25 or .50 FTE basis.  Regardless, there are alternatives that the University can take in order to minimize whatever financial impact these new regulations might have  in order to succeed at alleviating the financial and health impact of having some employees constantly overworked.

+ Unfortunately, labor law excludes from overtime educational employees whose main job is interacting with students in academic instruction or training (e.g. academic counselors who perform work such as administering school testing programs, assisting students with academic problems and advising students concerning degree requirements; and other employees with similar responsibilities.) [This includes all tenure and non-tenure stream faculty]. This is determined by job duties and actual duties performed and not job title.

On April  21, our local had a chance to honor a founding member, Veronica (Ronnie) Kann, who had been treasurer of Association of Academic local from 2002-2015.

Every year, the Friends and Advocates banquet gives local affiliates of the Illinois Education Association a chance to honor individuals who have contributed a great deal to the local. Lisa Bievenue delivered the tribute at the dinner:

When the AAP became affiliated with the IEA in the Spring of 2002, Ronnie was elected our first treasurer. She served in that office until last fall – more than 13 years. Those of you who are familiar with what a treasurer does, know how demanding the job is, and even those of us not in the know recognize the importance of the office. It is a thankless behind-the- scenes job, where you’re noticed only if something goes wrong.

When the Visiting Academic Professionals won recognition, but the regular APs did not, Ronnie’s job was complicated tenfold because she had to manage the dues of both members and fair share fee payers, as well as members who are not in the bargaining unit. She had to negotiate between two large bureaucracies, one – the University– that at that time was undergoing an overhaul of its management systems and is not the most cooperative employer, and second – the IEA, which was new at dealing with professional non-faculty members in Higher Ed, especially quote-visiting-quote employees with a high monthly turnover rate. Thanks to Ronnie, the whole dues mess was straightened out, after countless phone calls, emails and meetings.

But even then, dues and membership remained complicated. The AAP has an average of nine new members per month and nine members leaving the unit each month over the course of every year, with an average time in the unit of less than 2 years. And there were some times during the AAP’s existence when Ronnie was the only executive officer.

She did this while balancing her demanding work schedule as the Assistant Director of La Casa Cultural Latina where she worked tirelessly on the academic retention and success of Latina and Latino students at the University by organizing their peers, their families, faculty and alumni in that effort.

Ronnie, it is difficult to express our gratitude for the years that you have dedicated to the AAP and the union movement; this recognition as Advocate for AAP is long overdue.

Left to Right: Lisa Bievenue (AAP Treasurer), Steve Vaughan (IEA UniServ Director), Joe Roy (AAP President) and Jenny Barrett (AAP President, 2002-2011)

We were able to visit Ronnie at her home recently to let her know how much we appreciated all she has done:

Left to Right: Steve Vaughan, Joe Roy, Dan Hahn (AAP President, 2013-2015, Lisa Bievenue, Ronnie Kann, Jenny Barrett

The university recently sent an email to employees that included below:
Per CMS – The premium levels listed in the benefits flyer are for FY 2016. Employees should be aware that these premiums may be subject to an increase, pending the outcome of an ongoing legal dispute between the State and AFSCME and that this premium increase <may be applied retroactively to July 1, 2016. See the Special Notice on Page 5 of the CMS flyer.

What this is referring to is the current fight between Governor Rauner and AFSCME to double state employees contributions to health insurance. If the Governor is successful, this could be applied retroactively to July 2016 (even if the court decision comes later in 2016 or in 2017).  Currently, state employees pay 19% and Rauner wants to increase that to 40%. The State of Illinois currently pays pension, health care and other benefits for state employees. The rate for this is ~44% of your annual salary. These are often referred to as “Payments on behalf of” the University and are separate from the state aid to the University. So, for example, the 600 million approved recently by the legislature, doesn’t cover this (and is only about 30% of last year’s state funding).

Basically, take the amount on your earnings statement withheld for health insurance and double it.  Depending on what insurance you have (and whether you have dependants enrolled), effectively this means a 3-10% pay cut applied retroactively to July 2016.

Our union, along with other labor groups, are carefully monitoring this situation.

Update: