Identified as the number one priority by members in a pre-negotiations survey conducted by UCPEA, the university’s two-track merit system struck a nerve with members.

Specifically, money allocated to the system is divided into two pools: university merit, which is discretionary, and performance merit, which is based on an employee’s performance evaluation. Going into negotiations last fall, only 11 percent of the money allocated to merit pay was dedicated to performance merit.

Under the new agreement, which takes effect July 1, 2007, and runs through June 30, 2011, 27.5 percent of the approximate $1.3 million merit pool will be devoted to performance merit in contract years 2007-08 and 2008-09; and 25 percent will be dedicated to performance awards in contract years 2009-10 and 2010-11.

“To wrest some of that money out of their control and tie it to things our members can control—their performance—is a big win,” says Kathleen Sanner, UCPEA’s first vice president for collective bargaining. The change, she says, brings more transparency to the process. “I feel that that was a good-sized baby step.”

UCPEA member Adrian McCleary agrees. “The highlight for me was the merit,” says McCleary, an academic advisor in the Center for Exploratory Students, noting that basing merit pay distributions on performance is more equitable.

Overall, UCPEA negotiated a 4.99 percent total increase to the salary account in each year of the contract.

UCPEA-represented employees will receive 3.25 percent annual salary increases, as well as an across-the-board flat dollar amount that will be determined by taking 0.24 percent of the university’s salary account and dividing it by the number of bargaining unit employees.

Other contract highlights include:

• Changes to the sick-leave policy allowing bargaining unit members to use 10 sick days a year to care for an ill family member.

• A 30 percent increase to the professional development, child care and tuition reimbursement funds, as well as additional cash supplements to the professional development and child care pools.

• Extension of the period for using compensatory time from two years to three years, and an agreement to examine the causes of excessive compensatory time, such as understaffing.

“We went into negotiations with a very good contract,” says UCPEA president Kevin Fahey. “And we made a very good contract a little bit better.”

UCPEA members overwhelmingly ratified the contract in January. At press time, the union was awaiting legislative approval.