Late raises for California state workers won’t arrive by Christmas

California state workers who have been waiting on new raises since October won’t see the money by Christmas, according to state offices.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Oct. 13 approving union contracts with general salary increases and a collection of special pay bumps. Raises for about 19,000 workers represented by four unions were set to go into effect as soon as the state could process them.

If everything goes according to plan, the workers will see the raises in their monthly paychecks Dec. 31, State Controller’s Office spokeswoman Jennifer Hanson said in an email.

Separate checks with back pay on the raises will follow shortly thereafter, Hanson said.

The workers waiting on the raises are represented by the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association; the International Union of Operating Engineers; the California Association of Highway Patrolmen; and California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment.

Union representatives reached agreements with Newsom’s bargaining team at CalHR through the summer and then waited for Newsom to sign the legislation approving the agreements.

The attorneys’ union is considering suing over the delay. Its board of directors said in a Nov. 26 letter to members that the raises are taking much longer to process this year than in years past.

The International Unit of Operating Engineers sent a letter to CalHR Director Eraina Ortega last week urging her to hurry.

In the letter, Steve Crouch, director of public employees for a group of about 1,000 blue-collar workers, reminded Ortega the union reached an agreement with her department in August.

“There is no rational reason it should take more than three months to process their increases, or at a minimum, to have a time frame in which employees can expect their increases,” Crouch said in the letter. “Furthermore, employees are concerned about any tax implications they may endure if they received their increases after the new year.”

The workers, who maintain heating and cooling systems at state prisons, manage water and waste at state parks and handle HVAC at other state facilities, are all receiving a general salary increase of 2.75 percent in the contract’s first year, with some receiving increases of up to 25 percent depending on job classification, experience and where they work.

For three of the unions, CalHR still hasn’t issued letters with instructions for the State Controller’s Office to administer new pay, which is the first step in the process.

“The State Controller’s Office cannot process pay increases until pay letters are finalized,” Hanson said in the email.

CalHR issued the first of the letters, for the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association’s 7,300 workers, on Wednesday, Nov. 27. The workers, ranging from dispatchers and security officers to park rangers, will receive a 2.75 percent general salary increase in the contract’s first year and special salary increases up to 24 percent.

CalHR plans to issue pay letters for the other three unions on Dec. 9, said CalHR spokesman Andrew LaMar.

“Some of the changes in these contracts are quite involved in many elements, including in pay,” LaMar said. “It takes a lot of staff time and work to make sure these contracts are accurately administered and translated into pay.”

The raises depend on the controller’s office accurately calculating a range of special pay provisions including geographic pay increases, longevity pay and special salary adjustments using its Vietnam War-era payroll system.

“Our goal is to process them all in December, it’s just a question of whether (the controller’s office) can do it,” LaMar said.

The back pay portion is a result of negotiations between the unions and Newsom’s administration extending beyond July, when three of the unions’ old contracts expired.

The Highway Patrol contract expired a year earlier, but CHP officers get raises based on salary surveys of large municipal police departments rather than through their union contract. This year’s survey was recently completed and the CHP officers will get back pay to July based on the result. It will come a little later than it did last year, when they received raises on Dec. 1.

The 19,000 workers waiting on raises were among about 147,000 state workers whose unions negotiated new contracts with Newsom.

About 100,000 of the workers are represented by one union, SEIU Local 1000. Their raises aren’t scheduled to go into effect until July 1.

Raises negotiated over the summer for 28,000 correctional officers also go into effect next year.

This story was originally published December 2, 2019 at 5:30 AM.