Thursday, October 9, 2008

Jindal rejects one time bonus for state employees

The Jindal administration has shot down the State Civil Service Commission recommendation of a one-time salary bonus for all 59,700 rank-and-file Louisiana state employees as too costly and the wrong approach.

The administration cannot support the one-time bonus for all Civil Service employees because of the “many other demands” on state dollars including education, health care and transportation, Commissioner of Administration Angèle Davis wrote the employment agency’s chief.

Earlier this year, the administration rejected another plan targeting the workers for higher pay.

Civil Service Director Anne Soileau said the commission made its recommendations now so officials will have the information as budget preparations begin for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

Soileau said the minimum salary rate in the Civil Service pay plan is an average 10 percent to 25 percent below those of comparable jobs in Louisiana’s general employment market.

“We are losing people to the private sector,” Soileau said. “We have high turnover.” She said the state must stem that tide.

The rejection came as Jindal was seeking and gaining legislative approval of $94,000 to $60,000-plus raises for some of his appointees.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis said the governor will support a pay increase of up to 10 percent for nearly 4,800 state employees at the lower end of pay scales. She issued one caveat: its cost must not exceed $7.2 million.

Anonymous said...

Although this is good news for this group of 4800 employees if this in fact happens, there are 62,000 active state employees and an opportunity missed. But in reality this administration is no different that most others over the past 20 years, not much done for state employees.