NEWS

ACSS Meets With Caltrans to Discuss Pay and Benefits for Supervisors and Managers

On June 12, 2018, ACSS President Frank Ruffino, ACSS Director of Representation Nellie Lynn, and ACSS Attorney Gerald James met with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Director Laurie Berman and key members of her executive team. Ruffino acknowledged Director Berman was taking the helm of the Department as Caltrans begins to deliver Senate Bill 1 projects around the state. ACSS was an early supporter of SB 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act, to help California rebuild and maintain our transportation system. In addition to investing in our transportation infrastructure, ACSS encouraged Caltrans to take action supporting appropriate pay and benefits for the supervisory and managerial employees who are helping to deliver these projects.

Director Berman has been with Caltrans for 35 years, holding various supervisory and managerial positions along the way. “Caltrans will continue to invest and provide training for our managers and staff as we deliver twice as many projects as before Senate Bill 1,” said Director Berman. “The department is hiring thousands of people over the next several years to meet the demand.”

ACSS is working collaboratively with Caltrans Labor Relations to identify and address salary concerns for supervisors and managers. We look forward to working with Director Berman on these issues. After the meeting, Ruffino mentioned, “Director Berman understands the important role that supervisors and managers play in project delivery. ACSS continues to appreciate a positive working relationship with Caltrans and to build on the relationship with Director Berman.”

ACSS Unaffected by Supreme Court Janus v. AFSCME ruling on Fair Share Fees

On the last day of the session, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision in Janus v. AFSCME. This long anticipated decision ruled that non-members of public sector unions cannot be charged “agency fees”, often referred to as fair share fees. In a 5 to 4 vote, the Court overruled a 41-year old decision that said non-members can be charged a fee to cover the cost of a union’s collective bargaining efforts.

While the decision will have broad implications nationwide, there is no immediate impact on ACSS. For rank-and-file public sector labor unions in California and throughout the country, there will be some big changes as they adapt. Impacted unions anticipated this decision since at least 2016 and have been working to educate employees about the value of membership and collective representation.

General Salary Increases for Excluded Employees Effective July 1, 2018

The Department of Human Resources (CalHR) has informed ACSS of General Salary Increases (GSI) for state excluded employees effective July 1, 2018. As detailed below, excluded employees will receive the same percentage raises as the bargaining unit they are associated with.

Earlier this month ACSS President Frank Ruffino, ACSS Executive Director Rocco Paternoster, and ACSS Director of Representation Nellie Lynn met with CalHR Director Richard Gillihan to discuss issues affecting state excluded employees – including pay raises and retiree health benefits. Following the meeting and the announcement of salary increases, Director Gillihan shared the following with ACSS, “Managers and supervisors are the backbone of California state government. Their dedication ensures we are serving the public and safeguarding the state. I am pleased that the state is able to increase their salaries in recognition of the work they do.” Ruffino thanked the Director for his continued support of excluded employees.

Along with the General Salary Increases, the state budget includes provisions regarding state employee contributions for prefunding retiree healthcare. While some excluded employees already participate, all will soon see an employee contribution as a percentage of salary which is matched with a state employer contribution. The purpose is to reduce the “unfunded liability” for retiree health care which has received substantial negative public and media attention and to ensure that your valuable earned health benefits will be available when you retire. The deduction, expected to appear or adjust with your August pay warrant (received at the end of August/beginning of September), will show as CERBT – which stands for the California Employers’ Retiree Benefit Trust.

Exempt and Excluded Employees not directly tied to a bargaining unit (such as many employees who have an “E” Collective Bargaining Identifier) will receive a 4% GSI.

The official “Pay Letters” implementing the salary increases are expected to be released shortly after the Governor signs the State Budget later this week.

UPDATED 7/5/2018

Click here to view Pay Letter1815 for details on the General Salary Increases for Excluded Employees.

ACSS’ 12th Delegate Assembly is coming up soon!

ACSS is a member-driven organization, run by excluded state employees just like you! Every three years, elected Delegates participate in an Assembly to review and implement the bylaws and policies that govern ACSS. Delegate Assembly is also the stage where members of the Board of Directors are elected and sworn into office. If you are an ACSS member in good standing, you may nominate yourself to serve on the ACSS Board of Directors. If you would like to nominate yourself, consent forms are due to ACSS headquarters before 5pm on Wednesday June 20th! If you are an elected Delegate, Alternate or Chapter Officer, and have not RSVP'd to the event, please do so immediately!

>> Click here for more information about Delegate Assembly – documents, consent forms, important dates, detailed agenda and more!

Primary Election Results - ACSS Endorsed Candidates Advance to November Election

“ACSS had another great election day with all but two ACSS-Endorsed candidates advancing to the November election under California’s unique ‘top-two’ primary system.

An ACSS-endorsed candidate advanced in 97 of 98 races, including Democrat Gavin Newsom who finished first in the Governor’s race and will face a Republican in November. ACSS was 5 out of 5 in contested campaigns for open legislative seats.”

- Ted Toppin, ACSS Legislative Advocate

Click here to view complete election results. Open seat candidates are in bold.

Don't Forget to Vote in the Primary Election on June 5th!

Your vote matters!

Don’t forget to get out and vote in the California Primary Election on Tuesday June 5th, 2018! Help support ACSS’ Endorsed Candidates with your vote in the June Primary. Supporting these candidates and donating to the ACSS Political Action Committee are simple things you can do to ensure that the right legislators are in office to support the issues that matter to you most, like:

• Resolving salary compaction
• Protecting pensions
• Ensuring fair working conditions for supervisors, managers, and confidential state employees
• And more!

On June 5th, please vote and help ACSS Endorsed Candidates cross the finish line in these critical seats. Every vote counts!

Find your polling place.

Click here for more information on the California Primary Election.

May Revision of the Budget: Continue Saving for the Future as Surplus Grows

Governor Jerry Brown released his May Revise of the Budget on May 11th, 2018. ACSS Legislative Advocate Ted Toppin provides relevant analysis and insight of the May Revise that may be of interest to managers, supervisors and other excluded state employees:

“The state continues to generate revenue at unprecedented levels and now it is coming in faster. In January, the surplus was predicted to be $6 billion. The surplus now is expected to be $9 billion.

The May Revise proposes saving for the future. In January, the Governor proposed to put an additional $4.4 billion into the state rainy day fund, topping it out at $13.8 billion – the constitutional limit. In the May Revise, he socks another $3.3 billion into a different reserve account.

Budget negotiations between the Administration and the Legislature will now heat up. The Governor will urge restraint. Legislators of both parties will push for billions of dollars in additional spending. Ultimately, you can expect the Governor to agree to modest increased spending while keeping his rainy day reserves. Regardless, the Legislature will pass a budget by June 15 and the Governor will sign it by June 30.

Here’s what the May Revise says about issues important to ACSS members:

State Employee Compensation

The January budget proposal included $1.2 billion ($589.5 million General Fund) for:

• increased employee compensation
• health care costs for active state employees
• retiree health care prefunding for active employees

The May Revise decreases this amount by $8.1 million to reflect:

• corrections to 2019 health rates
• natural changes to enrollment in health and dental plan
• updated employment information for salary increases
• updated employment information for salary increases
• revised pay increases for judges
• updated costs related to the salary survey estimates for the California Highway Patrol (Bargaining Unit 5)

State CalPERS Contribution

The state’s contribution – $6.2 billion – to CalPERS is down slightly ($18 million) from the January estimate. The decline in the revise is mainly driven by:

• CalPERS’ higher than expected investment return in 2016-17
• the benefit of the state’s additional $6 billion pension payment in 2017-18
• higher than projected enrollment of members under the Public Employees' Pension Reform Act of 2013, who have lower benefit formulas

Overall, pension reforms are beginning to reduce costs. The May Revise proposes no additional pension reforms.

State Health Care/Retiree Health Care

The May Revise makes no changes to the expected costs of providing state employees and state retirees health care.

State Employee Position Increases

The May Revise also reports that there is expected to be an additional 3,878 position in state government next year for a total of 210,767 in FY 2018-19.”

The Governor’s complete budget summary and draft budget can be found here: www.ebudget.ca.gov.

Dual Endorsement: ACSS Endorses Newsom and Chiang for CA Governor

For the first time in ACSS history, gubernatorial candidates were interviewed in person by our ACSS Executive Committee at ACSS Headquarters. The Executive Committee asked each candidate key questions and listened to each one’s responses on how they would benefit ACSS members. After the meetings, ACSS chose to dually endorse both Gavin Newsom and John Chiang in their races for Governor of California. Both Newsom and Chiang promise to protect the defined benefit pensions of state employees, address salary compaction, and seek input of state supervisors and managers on how to solve these complex problems.

>> Read More...

(Click on images to view larger.)

California Supreme Court to Review a Trio of Pension Cases

Protecting your pension and retirement benefits is a core principle for ACSS. Three cases pending before the State Supreme Court raise questions regarding the validity of the long standing “California Rule.” Since 1955, the courts have held under the California Rule that once pension benefits are granted to a public employee, they are vested and cannot be modified for the duration of an employee’s career.

>> Read more...

ACSS Chapter Officer Elections - Online Voting is OPEN NOW!

We’re excited to announce that elections for ACSS Chapter Officer and Delegates (2018-2021 term) will be an online voting process. Online voting is OPEN NOW and runs through May 21, 2018, 11:59 PM (PST). For your ballot to count, you must complete your online ballot during that time period. Click here to view the list of Candidates for YOUR Chapter! 

ACSS is using an independent company, Survey & Ballot Systems (SBS), to host the election online. This ensures the complete confidentiality of the voting process and the accurate tallying of votes.

SBS mailed a letter to ACSS Members' home addresses on April 9th, 2018 that included online voting information with a direct link and unique login credentials.  SBS also emailed ACSS Members the voting information on April 20th, 2018. Members must complete ballots online through the direct link with their unique login credentials.

If you are an ACSS Member and have not received your email invitation or have questions, please contact ACSS at (800) 624-2137 or acss@ACSS.org.