Six state employee labor agreements and compensation plans get committee OK

With about four months left in the 2014-15 biennium, some state contracts for the two-year budget cycle are just now in the process of being authorized.

Sponsored by Rep. Jim Knoblach (R-St. Cloud), HF488 would ratify labor agreements and compensation plans that cover state employees represented by the Minnesota State University Administrative and Service Faculty, Minnesota State College Faculty, Minnesota Nurses Association, Inter Faculty Organization and the Minnesota Law Enforcement Association. Administrators with the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system (MnSCU) would also be covered.

Rep. Jim Knoblach

The total settlement increase, Knoblach said, is about 6.4 percent with a total cost of about $80 million.

Approved Thursday by the House State Government Finance Committee, the bill was sent to the House Higher Education Policy and Finance Committee. A companion, SF280, sponsored by Sen. James Metzen (DFL-South St. Paul), awaits action by the Senate Finance Committee.

The Legislative Coordinating Commission’s Subcommittee on Employee Relations put the plans into effect on a temporary basis until the Legislature ratifies the contracts to keep them in place. Labor contracts generally follow the biennium, even though they aren’t required to by law.

If the Legislature does not ratify the contracts, they are voided, changes in salary and benefits would not to be implemented and the prior contract would be reinstated, Commission Director Greg Hubinger told the committee during an overview Wednesday. “Employees are not required to pay back the increases in benefits and wages that they receive during that interim period.”

[Watch the Wednesday overview]

Knoblach said the six approved contracts up for approval all went to arbitration last year, a process that usually takes several months, meaning contract finalization came too late for authorization by the 2014 Legislature.

“The culture of the negotiations process between MnSCU and their faculty is such that it generally takes a longer time and they’re not completed in time to be considered by the Legislature in the first year of the biennium,” Hubinger said.

Negotiations have begun with the 17 bargaining units that combine to represent about 90 percent of state employees for the 2016-17 biennium.

But Hubinger said it is rare for a contract negation to be completed before a biennium begins, mainly because the state and union negotiators need to understand what’s financially available before an agreement can be reached.