Compensation « Sifting and Winnowing

Archive for the ‘Compensation’ Category

Politics and UW-Madison: Confronting the new reality

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

It is easy — indeed, it is natural after a series of crises to mistake a momentary calm for a return to normalcy. We, of course, want the threats to subside and to return to the way things once were which, even if they weren’t quite perfect, were familiar.

In that vein, we’d like to look back and regard the events of last semester as an aberration and not indicative of the life we live now or how we will live in the future. We’d rather not consider all of the facts and face the new reality: that we no longer know what life will be like in the future other than that it will probably be worse in some distinct but as of yet, unknown, ways. But “the facts get in the way” of our attempts to ignore our new and discomforting reality. (more…)

Posted in Collective bargaining, Compensation, State worker benefits, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The UW-Madison Campus | 6 Comments »

UW System pulls plug on all employee organizations

Friday, June 24th, 2011

On Thursday, UW System notified all UW employee organizations that it would stop collecting dues effective in August. This will affect PROFS, ASPRO, WUU, and the Council for Supervisory Non-Classified Staff as well as the unions (AFSCME, TAA, etc.). (Note: UW Madison administration was not notified of this action until after the fact.)

While it had been anticipated that the state would end the deduction for the unions, the end of the deduction for organizations that do not engage in collective bargaining comes as a surprise. In Walker’s initial budget, the prohibiting language was limited to “labor organizations” which are defined as “an organization that engages in collective bargaining.” However, when the bill was amended in Joint Finance a more expansive amendment was added that prohibited dues deduction for any employee organization other than those representing public safety employees. (more…)

Posted in Collective bargaining, Compensation, State worker benefits, State-University Relations, The University System | No Comments »

Will flexibility to retain star faculty create downward salary pressure for everyone else?

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Some of the recent statements for support for NBP come from stars among our faculty. It is no secret that the major reason to seek more flexibility is to meet the challenges in keeping the stars from moving to greener pastures. The competitive compensation plans to stay in the market for stars puts an upward pressure on the salaries of stars, while simultaneously exerting a downward pressure on the salaries of others, particularly exacerbated when you bring in equity considerations.

Let us not forget that while excellence and scholarship among our stars is beyond question, there is large segment among us who are silently sifting and winnowing for truth outside the limelight, working on unpopular ideas. It is the freedom to pursue such efforts that our tenure is supposed to guarantee. (more…)

Posted in Compensation, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The University System, The UW-Madison Campus | 3 Comments »

Does absolute pay matter? Maybe not. Do pay raises matter? You bet.

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Prof. Sara Goldrick-Rab’s blog, the Education Optimists, has been a goldmine of thoughtful and thorough deconstructions of the Public Authority proposal, and she has posed a number of pointed questions about the NBP, many of which have gone more or less unanswered by NBP proponents. Yesterday, she posed a new question:

What I am questioning is whether raising faculty salaries is the most cost-effective way to achieve the goal of retaining talent and whether efforts to raise faculty salaries should be a driving force behind the New Badger Partnership.

She then goes on to examine in some detail the role of absolute salary relative to other factors in faculty retention: (more…)

Posted in Compensation, Retention, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The UW-Madison Campus | 8 Comments »

Of deals, devils and details: Budget reality check

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

The politics of public authority for UW-Madison seem to be unraveling. People talking to key Republican lawmakers and staffers are hearing things like “non-starter” and “no way”. The Chancellor has ginned up a lot of support on campus and in Madison, but statewide politics will almost certainly kill this proposal.

Still, this deal is a monster and monsters don’t die so easy. Let me hand you a silver bullet for your pistol in case you meet this one in a dark alley: This deal with Walker has been sold by appeal to vague flexibilities. The details we do know, in fact, are mostly serious downsides, and many people aren’t even aware of them. Consider the budget implications of these two tidbits that I’ve picked up talking to people in the know: (more…)

Posted in Compensation, Shared governance, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The University System, The UW-Madison Campus | 2 Comments »

Ripping Wisconsin apart over $8 per month.

Saturday, March 5th, 2011

On February 11, Scott Walker unveiled his “budget repair bill”, which calls for the elimination of collective bargaining rights by unionized public employees and imposes immediate and drastic cuts in take-home pay for public workers by requiring new employee contributions to health and pension benefits. (more…)

Posted in Compensation, State worker benefits, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Does Governor Scott Walker have a smoking gun buried in the budget bill?

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

The following article by Kristen Emery was originally posted on her blog at kristensanfran.wordpress.com. As of this writing (early March 1), that website mysteriously comes up blank, so the following has been recovered from a Google cached copy. – Eds.

Yesterday was an incredible day for news, and my head is still spinning. And some of the news content has given me a theory, which might explain Governor Scott Walker‘s stubbornness about refusing to yield on the collective bargaining issue. It is only a theory now, but if I am right – then Walker may have stepped on the proverbial bee hive. The nuggets of information in the news content: (more…)

Posted in Compensation, State worker benefits, State-University Relations | 9 Comments »

Does Walker plan to dissolve ETF Board and raid the Pension Fund??

Monday, February 28th, 2011

The following message is being widely circulated via email and contains an alarming perspective on Governor Scott Walker’s intentions with respect to the Pension Fund. S&W cannot independently corroborate any of the claims at this time, but we urge any readers who know more to speak up. Because we don’t (yet) have explicit permission from the author to repost his message here, we are redacting identifying personal information. – S&W

Dear Fellow Retirees or Soon to Be,

Obviously you know about the ruckus going on at the capitol. What you may not know is the plans that Governor Walker has for the Pension Fund. (more…)

Posted in Compensation, State-University Relations, The University System | 2 Comments »

On public employees and the right to organize

Sunday, February 13th, 2011

With the dramatic budget proposal issued from the Wisconsin governor’s office this week, I find that as a knowledge-worker employed to research and to teach — or to “sift and winnow,” we like to say around here — I am motivated to write a short public piece about my own reactions to these budget proposals. I write from my personal position as both a state worker and a UW-Madison professor. Please remember that my views are my own, and not necessarily those of my department, my college, or my peers. (more…)

Posted in Collective bargaining, Compensation, State-University Relations | No Comments »

Furlough fun

Friday, December 31st, 2010

On the occasion of yesterday’s mandatory furlough day, I tracked down this document posted on the Provost’s website (UW System Furlough FAQs) to remind myself what I am and am not permitted to do. I quickly found my answer in Frequently Asked Question B.6:

May I work any time during FTO?
No. You must not work any time during FTO. Such work includes being physically present in the work place, work at home, work online, e-mail, work on the telephone, “working lunches,” work on Blackberry, or work on a cell phone. All such unscheduled, unapproved work on a furlough day is prohibited.

In short, by the very act of accessing the FAQ page in connection with my job at the University, I was in unambiguous violation of the policies it described! Thank goodness I checked.

Well, I am always grateful for such clear guidance when it is available, but it occurred to me that some gray areas remained. Having now waited until an ordinary holiday (when it is apparently legal again for me to use my home computer in connection with my University employment), I herewith propose the following additional questions in the hope that the Provost will helpfully append them, and their answers, to a future edition of the above FAQ: (more…)

Posted in Academic freedom, Compensation, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The University System | No Comments »

Sifting and Winnowing