We wanted to give you an update while our fall newsletter is being developed.
Pay Plan
As we are all well aware the pay plan that was developed by the Office of Personnel Management at the request of then Governor Hutchinson and intended for passage during the 2023 legislative session was put on hold by newly sworn-in Governor Sanders. Governor Sanders and her team have requested a new pay plan be developed along with a new performance pay evaluation system. With the news of a special session being called for this week we reached out to see if we could get it in on the agenda. The answer we received was they are still being developed and simply not ready.
We can confirm we will see a new pay plan proposal and evaluation system and we have promises from the Governor and legislative decision makers that ASEA will be able to preview the proposals and allow our members to preview as well. We can then offer suggestions and advocate as necessary.
What we do not know is when we will be able to look at the proposals. We can assume it should be ready to go through the legislative approval process during the 2024 fiscal session. We will continue to monitor and build support that state employees need and deserve a new pay plan.
Health Insurance
Finally, something good to report. For most active state employees your health insurance premiums will decrease in 2024. Both retiree plans will see modest increases. All of the 2024 retiree plans will be sent to you from AR Benefits, they are posted on our retiree Facebook page, or you contact us for a copy.
Summary
We will provide a full report on these issues and more in our soon to be released ASEA News. Thank you for being a member of ASEA. Keep your head up!
What a joke, they sent out the pay proposal last year and said it was up to each department to approve it, which they didn't and now we have to wait another year. What a disappointment to the state employees that work hard for the state. And for the evaluation system, that's a bigger joke then the pay. OPM has standards but when they send it to the HR departments they let them run it the way they want to. That isn't going to solve anything. Need to do better for the state employees.