BATON ROUGE, La. -- A proposal stalled Wednesday to replace the near-automatic 4 percent annual pay raises given to state
employees with a sliding scale of salary increases tied to performance.
The seven-member Civil Service Commission pushed back its decision until next month after commission members said they haven't received enough feedback from state employees. They worried that workers weren't commenting because they fear retribution from supervisors.
"We're hearing there is a lot of fear," said James Smith, chairman of the commission.
The members of the panel, which must approve any civil service rule changes before they can take effect, agreed without objection
to hold an evening hearing Dec. 8 to allow state workers to weigh in on the proposal without having to take leave from their job
during working hours. A vote on the idea likely would follow the next day.
John McLure, vice chairman of the commission, said he also wanted state workers told that they can send in anonymous letters
or e-mails to comment on the proposed pay changes. Fewer than 100 workers had sent in comments by Tuesday.
"Nobody likes change, and we're changing something that's been in effect for many, many years," Smith said.
The proposal would affect more than 61,000 "classified" state employees overseen by the Department of Civil Service, the state's personnel agency that recommended the changes. Thousands of other political appointees deemed "unclassified" would not be directly affected, though state agencies often apply the same policies to both classes of workers.
State workers who attended Tuesday's meeting argued that giving supervisors the ability to determine the level of someone's pay
raise will allow people to play favorites in a performance review rating system that can be very subjective. They said high-level
administrators would get the larger pay raises while lower-level workers would get small or no salary boosts.
"The good 'ol boy system is going to rule, and the employees are going to fall," said Paul Wilson, an employee with the
Department of Corrections. "State employees will suffer, and that's it, plain and simple."
Civil Service Director Shannon Templet and her staff recommended a varying scale of pay raises tied to the performance of the
worker, with increases ranging up to 6 percent for work deemed outstanding by an agency supervisor.
In annual performance reviews, agency chiefs could give pay raises of up to 3 percent for those who "meet expectations," up
to 4 percent to those who "exceed expectations" and up to 6 percent for "outstanding" employees. The changes, if approved by the Civil Service Commission and Gov. Bobby Jindal, would take effect with the start of the new budget year on July 1, 2010.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
