Memo: State workers need OK to attend civil service hearings

The state government’s employment agency advised that state employees must get their bosses’ permission to attend a public hearing on proposed changes in the state’s pay raise policy.

State employees must take annual leave, which their bosses must approve, if they want to participate in the State Civil Service Commission hearing if it is held during their regular work hours, the memo said.

The Civil Service hearing is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on Nov. 4, a work day.

Classified state employees — about 60,000 workers — would be covered by the new pay proposal. It would eliminate 4 percent annual pay raises for employees when they meet or exceed job expectations or when they score outstanding on their performance reviews.

The pay plan would be replaced with one that sets different pay-raise ceilings for job performance categories. It would give agencies total discretion on whether to grant pay raises and how much. Employees who rate meets or exceeds job expectations or outstanding could receive no pay raises.

State Employees slated for first general pay raise since 1990

Louisiana’s state employees will start seeing a $1,500 annual pay raise in their pay checks beginning next month according to this story in Thursday’s Baton Rouge Advocate.

The raise, the first general increase since 1990, amounts to
72-cents an hour. The pay increase will be retroactive to July 1, the
beginning of the state budget year.

The state Civil Service Commission on Wednesday adopted pay schedules that allow for implementation of the pay increase for some 60,000 classified employees.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco issued an executive order to implement the raise for an estimated 36,000 full-and part-time employees who are in the unclassified
service.

Civil Service Commission member Burl Cain called the pay increase “historic” because the pay raises are a flat amount that all employees will get, not the usual percentage increase.

“We did the flat rate which gives the largest percentage to the folks that make the least amount of money,” said Cain, also warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.