Civil service pay change on the table

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Nov 1, 2009

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Civil service officials are considering a system that gives individual government managers more of a say on which state workers get pay raises and how much.

The proposal is scheduled to be taken up Wednesday by the seven-member state Civil Service Commission, which decides policy for about 61,000 classified state government workers.

The proposal is touted as a move to a “pay for performance” system that would allow agencies to reward employees for jobs well done.

Today, classified government workers whose job performance meets or exceeds expectations get a 4 percent pay raise.

Under the proposed new system, a worker’s job performance will be graded by supervisors and the annual pay increase, if any, could be as much as 6 percent.

State employees and retirees have been peppering the Civil Service Commission with objections to the revamp of long-standing rules on government pay. They fear the plan will mean no pay raises. They complain the recommendations would give agency officials carte blanche authority and could lead to denying good workers pay raises for political reasons.

“As I understand it, if my performance is rated ‘exceeds expectations’ I can still be denied an adjustment, based on other criteria decided by the appointing authority who just happens to be obligated to the Governor,” state employee Daniel Hurdle wrote in an e-mail to the commission.

“By next year, most will not get a raise at all because agencies simply won’t have to give one in the proposed plan,” wrote Tammy Davis, whose husband also is a state employee.

“Do you really think the state will be able to retain good employees if they never get a raise?” asked Pat Wright, a retired supervisor.

A Southeastern Louisiana University at Hammond employee launched an online petition drive last week against the changes http://www.petition online.com/wrkr4pay/

“I feel it’s more budget-related, related to the state’s financial problems,” said Leslie Davis, the Southeastern library employee who has launched an online petition drive.

Davis said Civil Service did not give employees much time to comment. Many state workers just recently found out about the proposals that would affect their pay, she said.

The proposed changes to Chapter 6 of the Civil Service rules were drafted by staffers in the Department of Civil Service. The changes are backed by Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration.