Question:  Request from a staff member to have the gym open earlier in the day to accommodate employees who ride bikes and would like to shower before getting to work at 8:00 a.m.

Harry Hoppe, Pressman, Printing Services
and member SWC

Question: I just read about a CATMA bike/walk program that rewards alternate commuters. http://www.uvm.edu/~catma/Bikewalkprogram.html Since we are not members of CATMA we are not eligible, but it sure does sound like a great idea, especially for those of us who regularly bike/walk or even take the bus to work. I'd love to know if it or something similar is a possibility.

Answer: Sorry for the delay. We contacted the CATMA program. The cost to the employer is based on the number of employees who participate. It would be approx. $90 a participant, plus additional administrative fees to become a CATMA associate member. CATMA is gathering some information for us regarding costs associated with becoming an associate member.
In a nutshell, the program requires you to be an employee of a CATMA member institution. To be eligible for the incentives, you walk and/or bike to and from work at least three days each week for two 4-week periods. The weeks within each 4-week block MUST be consecutive, however, the first week of your second 4-week block doesn't have to directly follow the last week of the first 4-week block.
In order to advocate for a program like this, the Staff Welfare Committee needs to hear from employees who have an interest in participating. If you are an SMC employee, and have an interest in trying to bring this program to SMC, please contact: lcrain@smcvt.edu.
 

Question:  I understand that the college is moving forward with CCTA passes for students. Is there any way this can be extended to staff/faculty, as I believe UVM and Champlain does?

Answer: According to Neal Robinson, VP for Finance, there are no plans for college-provided CCTA passes. Some time ago, CCTA approached SMC, but the benefits (as described by the CCTA) were inadequate to justify the additional expense to the College. In the future, should the College make arrangements with the CCTA, efforts would be made to include faculty and staff.
 

Question: Has there been any movement forward on the possibility of cost of living increases, as well as better and significant annual increases? I would like paid time off to carry over into the next year instead of losing anything over 120 hours at year’s end.(note: this suggestion came to us Jan. 30, 2007 – the SWC apologizes for the delay in responding)

Answer: The College has set the annual cost of living increase for staff for FY08 at 3%. The SWC recently sent a memo to the College cabinet regarding increasing the wage floor at Saint Michael's College (in consideration of livable wage). We will forward your suggestion to HR regarding a request for more significant annual increases and a re-consideration of PTO carrying over.
 

Question: Quite a while ago we were given a timeline in which to complete our job descriptions and get them back to HR. This was to be done and we have not received information as to when that information will be used (or not). I feel strongly that merit increases should be addressed, and this is the first step toward that. When can we expect these returned to us? Thank you.

Answer: The Staff Compensation project team developed a Job Assessment Questionnaire form that was distributed to the Staff for completion.  It was the intent of the project team that all staff employees would participate in the completion of the questionnaire. To date we have received completed forms for approximately 90% of the staff positions (some jobs have multiple incumbents). The HR staff took these assessment forms and produced an individual Job Description. All completed descriptions have been returned to the appropriate Staff management for review, comments and edits. It was our plan that these descriptions would be reviewed with the employees prior to finalizing them. If you have not received a copy of your completed job description we would encourage you to contact your supervisor.
 

Question (asked of an SWC rep): Should the cost of health care be linked to compensation?

Answer:  Human Resources is convening a Healthcare Task Force in 2007 to plan for the future of Saint Michael's College health care plans and design. The SWC was asked to provide 3 representatives to serve on this committee. Those representatives are: Rick Battistoni, Stephanie Noakes, Ingrid Peterson. The issue of employee health care contributions, and whether they should be scaled to correspond with salary levels, will, no doubt, be on the table for the Task Force to review. As more information is provided to the SWC in 2007 on this issue, the SWC will make a recommendation to the SWC representatives on the Task Force regarding this and other health care plan related topics. Please continue to contact SWC representatives regarding your opinions on this issue.

Question: is there a place on campus for administrative assistants/secretaries to eat lunch?

Answer: this questions was addressed by the SWC as a broader question - where can staff members go to eat lunch? Because we represent many areas of the college many spaces were mentioned that an employee can go to get away from their office and have lunch:
The library lower level has a space that is quiet, comfortable and even has a coffee machine
Founders Annex and Klein both have a lobby with comfortable seating
Saint Edmunds Hall and Alliot lobby – comfortable seating but can be less quiet than other places but offers possibility of student interaction (and 2nd floor hallway in Alliot also has seating and side tables). Tarrant has a lounge near the front desk that is often empty during the day. Cheray near the elevator on the second floor has a quiet spot with a table and chairs

Of course there is the Faculty/Staff Dining room. However, we acknowledge that space can be booked. Bookings are posted on the SMC website EMS system and also posted daily outside the door. There is a combination lock on the door and we will post that to a secure location on our SWC web page. The SWC noticed that the room needed attention to make it a more inviting spot and we are following up on that with Physical Plant.
 

Update from HR to April/May suggestion re: vacation/sick time on pay stubs:
An email was sent to the community on June 20, 2006 announcing the modification of the check stub to remove the display of the social security number and full bank account number. The display of the sick time balance for those who have one, was included with the check stub update at that time. (See April/May 06 answers for background)

Question: A PWC rep was asked to check on the legality of being paid monthly (e.g. the request came from someone who would like to be paid more frequently (every other week).

Answer: PWC inquired with Mike New, whose response is as follows:

"We are in compliance per subsection b, which allows us to pay semi-monthly, i.e. from the 1st through the 15th and the 16th through the 31st. Our monthly check date of the 20th is one day less than the required 6 days from the 15th semi-monthly date. The paycheck paid on the 20th of each month is pay for the two previous weeks of work for that month, as well as for the two weeks of work yet to be performed. This “modified semi-monthly” pay schedule actually exceeds the spirit of this statute in two ways: 1) we are not making employees wait beyond the allowable 6 days past the semi-monthly period end for wage payments and 2) we are going beyond that requirement by paying employees in advance for the last two weeks of each month."