With a fully revamped system set to govern the University's classified employees' pay structure, employers will have more authority over their workers' salaries and will be able to grant pay raises more easily if they so desire.
Classified employees are paid a salary rather than an hourly wage and receive health care and retirement benefits. The Commonwealth stipulates guidelines for their compensation in the Virginia Personnel Act, which is part of the Code of Virginia.
Chief Human Resources Officer Thomas E. Gausvik said the current plan limits the methods by which employees can increase their base salary, but the new plan -- the first in 40 years -- quadruples their options.
The new statewide plan enables employees to negotiate promotional pay increases of up to 15 percent above their current salaries, as well as compete for positions that are lateral transfers, or within their same pay scale.
Employees also will be able to earn higher salaries for taking on more duties, for staying with a job and for undergoing additional job training such as improving computer skills. Managers will have the authority to reward employees with on-the-spot bonus payments of up to $1,000.
In September, employees will gain a new official state title and enter one of the nine new pay bands instead of the current 23 salary grades, Director of Compensation Management David W. Ripley said.
Employees will enter the new plan with the same salary they earned under the old system and will receive a 3.25 increase in December. All employees meeting or exceeding expectations will receive the increase.
According to Gausvik, 400 out of the University's 4,000 classified employees are now at the maximum level of the pay scale, but their salaries can continue to grow under the new system.
"The new plan will allow us to retain the talented work force we have, reward those workers, and, when people do leave, allow us to recruit the most talented people," he said.
Employees will not earn salary increases based upon performance evaluations until December 2001.
Despite the potential pay benefits from the new program, concerns remain over whether the new system gives managers too much authority.
"We want to have as many controls as possible in the system to ensure fairness and consistency," Ripley said, referring to the concern that employers might be biased toward giving raises to one employee over another.
He said representatives from across the University are working together to ensure the new system is administered fairly to all employees.
He added that initial decisions related to salaries will be made by very high-level officials who have budget authority.
"Many public sectors have moved for this flexibility already," Gausvik said. "We are playing catch-up as a state."
But some members of the University community oppose the plan. Nelson Lichtenstein, member of the Labor Action Group, and active advocate of the living wage campaign, said the University could have raised the minimum wage for all University employees to $8 an hour.
"It was a missed opportunity," Lichtenstein said.
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