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Interim Chancellor William O. McCoy has responded to Employee Forum
statements aiming to improve staff pay, working hours and training.
McCoy announced the news at an April 5 forum meeting.
The interim chancellor on March 20 sent a letter to UNC President Molly
Corbett Broad asking her to work with other UNC system chancellors and UNC
General Administration's personnel department to "develop a strategy to achieve
competitive salaries and benefits for our staff employees."
McCoy's letter came with the backdrop of an Employee Forum request that he
support the need to pay high-demand positions based on geographical differences
in cost of living. The request was developed by the forum's Personnel Issues
Committee.
In the letter, McCoy pointed to the "competitive market pressures that
make it difficult for us to recruit and retain employees." He also noted that
Carolina has more than 600 staff vacancies, a circumstance that "puts a
continuing strain on current employees, contributing to additional
turnover."
McCoy acknowledged that any pay structure based on geographic differences
would have to be approved by the N.C. General Assembly as well as have the
funding to put it in place.
But, he added, "I believe it is important to the continued excellence of
the University system that we make this effort to be able to recruit and retain
quality employees."
Employee Forum Chair Joanne Kucharski said she was heartened by McCoy's
action.
"I think that (geographic pay) would solve a lot of the retention problems
on campus," she said.
On the issue of working hours, McCoy said in a letter to Kucharski that he
has asked Human Resources staff to continue to educate supervisors and
employees about the University's flexible scheduling option and to monitor any
concerns they may have about flex time.
A forum statement on working hours also called for monitoring and training
of employees' managers to ensure that staff members are not required to report
vacation or sick time in weeks they already work 40 hours.
In his letter, McCoy noted that Human Resources is informing campus that
this is how leave time should work. McCoy also said he had told members of the
Chancellor's Cabinet to put the word out in their areas that managers should be
sensitive to the potentially heavy work loads of so-called "exempt" employees.
These employees do not qualify for overtime pay or compensatory time for
working more than 40 hours in a work week. They instead are paid a salary
deemed adequate for the job.
Kucharski said that McCoy's response will serve to generate more
discussion on the topic as well as be a starting point from which to educate
employees about wage/hour laws.
McCoy also has endorsed a forum statement about ways supervisors can help
employees improve their job skills for career development.
McCoy has informed deans, directors and department heads that he supports
the statement and has asked that they do so for their areas.
McCoy also has arranged for a feature story on the statement to appear in
an upcoming Gazette and other communications means.
Kucharski called McCoy's response to the training statement "extremely
strong and positive."
She praised McCoy's overall work on the statements.
"I'm just extremely pleased at the response, the support and the continued
involvement that the chancellor has provided," she said.
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