Leaders of the University of Hawaii faculty union want state lawmakers next week to approve funding to pay the raises the union won during negotiations this year but say Gov. David Ige’s administration hasn’t agreed to that plan.
A news release issued by the faculty union Tuesday alleged that the governor’s office “threw in a last-minute, post-agreement monkey wrench to delay the faculty’s agreed upon wage increases.”
The University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, which represents nearly 3,700 faculty members, finalized a new contract with the state Aug. 3.
Money for pay increases for public workers must
be appropriated by state lawmakers, but the new contract with UHPA was finalized after the Legislature adjourned this year.
The raises and additional fringe benefits in the new contract for UHPA members are expected to cost the state an extra $36 million over the next two years.
In a filing with the Hawaii Labor Relations Board on Monday, UHPA said state lawmakers can appropriate money for those raises next week when the Legislature is scheduled to meet in a special session to approve additional funding for the city’s rail project.
However, Ige’s chief of staff, Mike McCartney, indicated there might be “technical problems” with that plan because state law might prohibit appropriations for union pay increases during special sessions, according to the filing by the union.
If so, that would mean
the faculty union members would not receive their raises until after July 1,
a year after the new contract was supposed to
take effect.
The union is now asking for a declaratory ruling by the labor board that makes it clear lawmakers can appropriate money for the raises during the special session, according to the filing.
The new contract covering members working in the 10-campus system includes $500 increases in pay in each of the first two years, to be paid out over 24 installments.
Members are supposed to also receive a 2.13 percent raise in the first year of the contract, followed by a 2.82 percent raise the next year. The faculty members will receive 2 percent raises during each of the final two years of the contract.
Delaying payment of those raises for a year would have “an immediate negative impact on the pocketbooks of faculty, and receiving a retroactive lump sum payment a year from now would create severe tax consequences for the faculty,” the union said in a statement.
McCartney said in a written statement Tuesday
that the administration has “assured the union that we have every intention of
ensuring that employees receive their negotiated pay increases as soon as possible in accordance with the collective bargaining law.”