Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Jeb Spaulding, secretary of Vermont’s Agency of Administration.
As the person responsible for overseeing the agencies and departments that run state government in Vermont, I have witnessed our state employees at their best over the past several weeks. Since Tropical Storm Irene hit our state, our state employees have stepped up. From across state government, they have worked tirelessly to reconnect our communities with breathtaking speed, keep critical state programs running and literally save lives and property. Vermonters, and this administration, are most appreciative.
In that light, the recent decision by the Vermont State Employees’ Association (VSEA) and a small group of employees displaced from the Waterbury office complex to seek double pay in the wake of Irene by filing a grievance is disappointing. The roughly 100 employees who demand double pay for performing their jobs after Irene – it’s unclear the actual number, since after the original grievance was filed, at least four state employees, added by the union without their permission, have since asked to have their names removed, and others who had originally joined the grievance have chosen to drop off – are doing an extraordinary disservice to their fellow employees and Vermont taxpayers.
We have no interest in having a public fight with the VSEA. However, I do think the public has a right to understand why this administration believes our decision – that it was inappropriate to pay double time to employees who used to work at the Waterbury office complex – was correct and consistent with our collective bargaining agreements with state employees.
The collective bargaining agreements only require double pay for employees who are called to work during an “emergency closing,” and the state has the discretion to determine whether an “emergency” exists. The idea behind the double-time provision is that if, during a blizzard, ice storm, or similar event, certain state employees, such as corrections guards, plow drivers or emergency personnel, have to come to work despite dangerous conditions, they are compensated double time. We made the correct decision, consistent with the contract. Emergency pay provisions applied on Aug. 29, 2011, the day state government was closed and we all were in the throes of Irene. After that, with state government open again, all state employees were paid according to normal pay provisions.
The notion that the contract somehow contemplates double pay because of long-term building damage is nonsensical, and leads to unintended and untenable results. Indeed, two state employees could work side by side doing essentially the same job, while one earns regular pay and the other is paid twice. Similarly, a transportation employee could earn regular pay working extended hours reconnecting washed out bridges in the rain or heat, while a displaced office worker earns double pay sitting at a computer.
We disagree with the VSEA’s suggestion that the best way to avoid paying double pay was for us to send out relocation letters to roughly 1,500 employees in the days immediately following Irene, even if we didn’t know where to relocate them. Inventing fictional assignment locations? That did not make sense. It would have been confusing and unfair to our employees, distracted us from the immediate task of responding to a disaster and was not necessary under the contract. Indeed, nothing in the contract requires double pay for any alleged failure to assign employees.
Some have speculated that the administration’s position and response on this pay issue was designed to embarrass the VSEA and position ourselves as we begin contract negotiations. I assure you, there is no truth to that. We intend to bargain with VSEA representatives with respect and in good faith.
Gov. Shumlin has asked state employees who demand double pay to reconsider and drop their grievance. The saddest end to this unfortunate episode would be to provide critical state dollars in double pay to employees who simply showed up for work, at a time when our state budget is already being squeezed and when the needs of Vermonters in the wake of Irene, as well as in the face of steep federal cuts, have never been greater. The thousands of state employees who distinguished themselves over the past several weeks would be diminished by this possibility.
If there is a single lesson that I have learned in the aftermath of this awful storm, it is that we live in a state whose people instinctually know how to transcend our differences – political, regional or ideological – to take care of our own and help our neighbors. There is still time for employees to decide they do not want double pay for performing their jobs after Irene. It’s the right thing to do for themselves, for their union, and for their fellow Vermonters.
