CONWAY -- The University of Central Arkansas rescinded a 2 percent cost-of-living increase it had recently given to classified employees and replaced it with merit bonuses Thursday.
UCA President Tom Courtway told the board, meeting by teleconference, that he mistakenly had thought the university still could give cost-of-living increases to classified employees if it had enough money even though the state budget did not provide for such raises.
The state's budget for fiscal 2017 instead included only merit bonuses of 1.5 percent for satisfactory performance, 3 percent for above-average performance and 4.5 percent for performance that exceeds standards, he noted. Further, unlike a cost-of-living raise, a bonus is a one-time payment that, unlike a raise, does not carry over to future paychecks.
"Classified staff [members] are subject to the state pay plan," Courtway told trustees.
Faculty members and unclassified workers still will get the 2 percent cost-of-living increase, which the board approved during its May 23 meeting.
UCA spokesman Christina Madsen said the university has 1,445 full-time faculty and staff members. Of those, 519 are classified workers, she said.
Courtway said classified employees at UCA tend to be those who work in the physical plant and in some administrative positions, but not administrators such as himself and vice presidents. At UCA, he said, classified workers tend to be the lower-paid staff members. But that is not the case at all universities, he said.
According to the board's agenda item, the cost to the UCA budget associated with the changes approved Thursday would be to increase the payment at the end of this fiscal year by about $457,000 if all classified employees got the highest percentage on their evaluations. The university's fiscal 2017 budget would then have $362,000 -- the salaries and benefits of a 2 percent cost-of-living increase for classified personnel -- placed in a special reserve fund where it could go toward such raises should they be allowed again, though Courtway said he thought that happening again was "unlikely."
Courtway described the university's classified employees as "hardworking" and said, "I regret that I made this mistake."
There was little, if any, discussion among trustees during the teleconference. No staff members at the meeting objected or questioned the changes.
Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis explained Thursday that the issue came down to affordability.
"We looked at the numbers and couldn't do both," Davis said after the UCA meeting.
Because many employees "really count on" merit pay and the state couldn't do that and a cost-of-living raise, "We decided to go with merit pay," he said.
A Section on 06/03/2016