CWA 1180 - HRA Watch

HRA Watch

Desperate, HRA tries to lure JOS workers with vague 'merit' proposal
July 2001

Local 1180 has learned that HRA is planning to announce that they might offer merit increases to some people who take the new JOS and AJOS positions. It's safe to say that if enough people had signed up for the JOS titles already, they would not feel the need to try to entice people further. At the same time, closer scrutiny of the proposed plan reveals that there's a lot less there than it might appear at first glance. Local 1180 is demanding that the agency negotiate with the union over what criteria they will use. (Details of the plan seem to be changing every day, and we will de our best to update this page accordingly.)

The specifics that 1180 has been told (as of 7/20/01) are as follows. For each grade of each title, up to 25% of people applying for the jobs will be eligible for the merit increase every six months. The increase is from 10% to 20%. It is important to realize what this offer means and doesn't mean. "Up to 25%" means it could be 5%, 25%, 2%, 1% or 0% of people that they actually offer the merit increase to. It means some people might get the increase. The phrase "up to 25%" makes no guarantees—it merely dangles an appealing idea in front of workers who have rightfully been skeptical that taking these new titles is in their interest. Futhermore, by saying that up to 25% of JOS workers will be eligible every six months it means HRA can string workers along from one six-month period to the next. The original proposal as 1180 heard it was a one-time increase for up to 25% of JOS workers. Perhaps the agency is afraid that if it were only a one-time offer everyone who didn't get the merit increase would immediately ask for their old title back. By keeping the possibility (but no guarantee!) open that people might get the increase in the next round, HRA may well be looking to keep people in the title till it's too late for them to revert to their old titles, that is, until after the six month probabtion period is over. A cynical projection might be that there will be far fewer merit raises offered once people are permanently stuck in the title—again keeping in mind that "up to 25%" can mean 0%.

Local 1180 members, most of whom have refused to take the new title despite enormous pressure, intimidation and visits from a barrage of high-ranking officials, have been indignant all along that the agency expected them to go into these new jobs without any additional compensation. (The lack of compensation, of course, is only one the several major problems with the whole JOS idea; click here for the full story.) The AJOS position, after all, adds to the eligibility work they already do the duties of the social work Local 371 members currently perform. More work for no more money, in other words. This new merit pay scheme does not change that—after all, it's everyone in the new title who will be doing more work but only some people, maybe, who will get increases. Nevertheless, it seems clear that HRA has come up with this idea because they were unable to get people to sign up without at least seeming to offer them something more.

The lesson for 1180 members is that the more we hold out against AJOS, the more power we have in shaping our own future. It is very conceivable that we can derail this ill-hatched plan altogether—we just have to make it to the end of the Giuliani reign on December 31—and if not, our resistance will still put us in a better position to negotiate an appropriate, across-the-board increase for the title.

Since merit pay is notoriously seldom based on actual merit, 1180 will be super-vigilant in insisting on the fairest possible criteria when we meet with HRA to discuss their plan.

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