Say no to Senate bill 575

I am deeply troubled by the proposed removal of 22,000 UNC-system employees from the State Personnel Act (SPA), a transition that Senate Bill 575 would permit.

We have heard the explanations of the bill, which would result in an employment transition that would give ultimate authority to the UNC-system Board of Governors to oversee and manage SPA positions.
UNC’s Vice Chancellor for Human Resources Brenda Malone and other administrators say it is a change meant to increase efficiency and flexibility with regard to UNC-system workers.

However, the Coalition for Workplace Democracy — comprised of campus workers, students, faculty and union and community organizers — is extremely concerned about the consequences this legislation will have for present University employees and their future ability to claim their rights in the workplace.

If UNC workers are transitioned from SPA status to Exempt from the State Personnel Act (EPA) status, the Board of Governors will be given sole authority to set the parameters of employment for UNC workers. These parameters include health and disability benefits, wages, grievance policies, disciplinary measures and human resources policies.

If this were to occur, there would be no higher authority — no external, objective system of checks and balances — to catch potential or actual abuses of power.

While we acknowledge that there were “guiding principles” introduced to direct this proposed shift, the longevity of these principles is limited to the current administration.

Without any legal, contractual provision, there is no guarantee that these principles will be followed when University leadership and Board of Governors membership changes. Future administrators would not be legally obligated to protect their employees’ rights.

Furthermore, the principles outlined are incredibly vague. They are promises for the future that don’t actually make clear what this change in employment classification will look like for the thousands of workers whom it will affect.

As a member of the Coalition for Workplace Democracy, I have listened closely to many University workers who fear that SB 575 would make them more afraid than they already are of speaking out about mistreatment.

This means that workers could face an even more difficult work environment than they already do, potentially facing termination without explicit justification and without any legal recourse — both of which are currently guaranteed under SPA protections.

The updated guiding principles Malone released were supposed to incorporate feedback from workers, but only 29 SPA employees responded during the allotted feedback period. These 29 workers only represent 0.001 percent of the 22,000 workers across this state who would be affected by the legislation.

This glaring lack of participation underscores workers’ lack of trust in the University and confirms its poor record of worker treatment. Using email as the primary tool for seeking worker input was problematic to say the least, since not all of the workers have reliable access to the Internet.

North Carolina should not move forward with legislation that would drastically change workplace conditions for thousands of the state’s workers when these workers’ voices have not been heard and their concerns have not been adequately considered.

In the coming weeks, we will continue to work against the progress of this employment transition, which we see as a truly damaging shift that will inevitably silence workers at this university.

We’d like to sit down and meet with you to discuss the various problems we see in this transition from SPA to EPA for workers at UNC-system schools. We hope we can count on your support in this struggle for fairness and respect for the people who work so hard to maintain our great institutions.