The following information was received from Paul
Simonds (IFS Senator). It is part of a larger document
transmitted to the IFS and is posted and transmitted to the UO Senate with
his permission.
REPORT ON THE Meeting of the PEBB Board 15 December 1999
Dave Frohnmayer, Bill Anslow, Joe Sicotte and Paul Simonds represented
the OUS system before the board and the whole meeting was taken up with
the issue of OUS possibly moving out of PEBB. All four of us made the following
points in one form or another:
-
1. Benefits have been a major part of faculty compensation for years. The
present prospect is something between a two and four percent cut in faculty
pay, already marginal gauged against our comarator institutions. It was
pointed out that the classified staff are very close to market in their
salaries while faculty are at least 15% below market and are being asked
to take a further cut by PEBB actions.
-
2. The loss ratio for active Oregon University Employees for the year ended
in October 1999 is 60% while that for non OUS employees is 110% = we are
subsidizing the rest of PEBB but our issues are being ignored. [For the
value of work performed you are asking those with the lowest compensation
ratio to subsidize those who are much closer to the going rate of compensation
for their skills.]
I made the following additional point:
faculty who have chosen to stay in Oregon have subsidized higher education
in this state for many years by accepting among the lowest levels of compensation
among comparable institutions. The strong SEBB benefits program has been
almost the only point we could make in hiring. (Frohnmayer supported this).
You (PEBB board) must realize these are people who do not look for jobs
just in Oregon but in the national and, to some extent, the international
setting. Many can turn to other positions with much higher compensation.
The representative for classified staff scolded us for thinking of pulling
them out with faculty and treated it as though we were whining, whereupon
the difference in relation to market compensation for them and faculty
was re-emphasized by the OUS representatives.
I saw no willingness for the board to seriously consider our concerns.
They are only concerned with keeping costs low, not looking at benefits
as part of the compensation package. OUS did give notice to separate from
PEBB. It had to be given before 1 January 2000 to keep our options open
but does not mean that OUS will leave PEBB. The governor is still holding
discussions and OUS has until March to make a final decision.
Exerpt from the Report of the 16 December 1999 Academic Council Meeting
Denise Yunker reported on the PEBB Governor's board meeting. There were assurances that opt out and cash back will have stability (but it depends a lot on
health costs how stable it will be). With increased health costs coming the board need to do plan design rather than just have increased pay-in by employees.
For OUS, the composite rates will be retained: no differentiation between single and married employees in the allowance, $470 for this year. A proposal was to
have single employees receive something like $250 instead, thus reducing cash back substantially if not eliminating it. Many of the provosts felt we need to get
out of PEBB now and take whatever political fallout there may be. If we stay, we may well be stuck. We might hurt in the next biennium but it may be a cost
we should risk.
Web page spun on 6 January 2000 by
Peter
B Gilkey 202 Deady Hall, Department of Mathematics
at the
University of Oregon,
Eugene OR 97403-1222, U.S.A. Phone 1-541-346-4717 Email:peter.gilkey.cc.67@aya.yale.edu
of
Deady Spider Enterprises