According to Chapter 4 of the Carnegie Mellon-Self Study Report, "Staff play a large and central role in the University's mission." Staff Council believes that for several years the University administration has focused on the needs of the campus physical facilities, academic programs and faculty at the expense of the support staff. We recommend the University administration adopt and enforce the objectives and recommendations presented by Staff Council in an effort "to ensure mutual responsibility, which involves reciprocal rights, obligations and expectations, between supervisor and employee, thereby maintaining a climate of respect, open communication, learning, flexibility and leadership." [Carnegie Mellon Self-Study Report]. We believe such changes will lead to increased productivity of, and improved communication among, the University workforce and, therefore, greater economic efficiency throughout the campus. 

We have condensed our concerns into three main areas: salary and benefits, education and training, and working conditions. We have listed a goal, objectives and recommendations for each area. Presently, Staff Council is represented on some committees and task forces. Such participation is vital to the success of the mission and goals of these committees and should continue. In addition, where there is no participation by Staff Council on such committees and task forces, the University should provide for active representation by a member or members of Staff Council. 

Salary and Benefits
Goal

Carnegie Mellon must fairly and fully compensate employees for all work performed, and provide benefits in accordance with the spirit of our benefit agreement and not merely the letter of the agreement. 

Objectives and Recommendations
Employees must be compensated for ALL earned Paid Time Off (PTO) days.

All departments should allow staff to use the PTO days accumulated in one year during that same year, if the employee desires. Departments should provide temporary help for key people if needed. No employee should be allowed to lose unused, earned PTO days, including banked days, no matter what the number. The "P" in PTO means "Paid". These days have been earned, but they are often lost to staff with neither time nor "pay". Providing a buy-out or extending the limit of 130 banked days would ensure that no employee would lose unused, earned PTO days. 

Mandatory instruction of FSLA rules must be made to all staff particularly supervisory. These rules require that, in lieu of overtime pay, non-exempt staff may request time off equivalent to hours worked over 37.5 in a given week. If they cannot take the compensatory time within that week, they must receive overtime pay. According to the law, compensatory time for time over 40 hours in a week must be given at 1.5 times the hours worked. We also recommend allowing compensatory time to be taken within the entire time card period, not just within that work week, if that would be permitted by law. 

The University should view the tuition grant program for children of staff members as a permanent and valued benefit which should be increased annually with continuing review and scheduled increases. The recommendation committee should include members of staff, faculty and administration. 

The University should reconsider adopting the following benefits: the benefit recommendation for domestic partners submitted to the President's Office in 1994, the recommendations of the Performance Evaluation Criteria Subcommittee in 1997, and the benefit recommendation for part-time employees submitted to the President's Office in 1997. 

The University should issue all staff retirees an ID card which would allow them the use of the library and University Center facilities, thereby promoting our community environment and acknowledging past contributions of retired employees. 

Education, Training and Development

Objectives and Recommendations
To broaden staff development and promote personal growth by offering various forms of affordable education and training. 

Staff should be allowed more opportunities to pursue their education (at the present rate of 2 courses per semester) "to negotiate training and career development opportunities as a mutual responsibility of both the supervisor and employee" as stated in the Self-Study Report, but this benefit should not be conditional upon only "job-related" areas of education.

To provide more accessible classes for staff, specifically during evenings and weekends, as well as the flexibility to allow staff to attend those classes during the day (please reference above statement from the Self-Study Report.) 

In order to improve and maintain the management skills of supervisors, the University should make training for new and current (staff and faculty) supervisors mandatory, and provide the proper measure for supervisory assessments.

The University needs to develop and implement consistent, constructive yearly performance evaluations for staff (in accordance with the recommendations of the Staff Council Performance Evaluation Criteria Subcommittee) and to make those evaluations campus-wide. Salary increases should reflect these staff evaluations. 

To move into the 21st century by continuing to address women's and minority issues. 

Working Conditions
(two sections) 

Goal
To provide environmentally and ergonomically safe work areas.

Objectives and Recommendations
Ergonomic concerns, such as poor air filtration systems and asbestos in older buildings, need to be addressed. Since many departments do not have the budgets to absorb the costs of change, some type of funding must be provided to correct these conditions. 

Overcrowding in staff offices must be addressed so that minimum space allocations as set forth by the planning department are met. 

Educate employees regarding proper techniques and provide ergonomically safe work areas thereby reducing the amount of time used by employees to recover from workplace illnesses. 

Goal
To give primary consideration to current employees when openings exist, thereby providing more opportunities to promote staff from within. 

Objectives and Recommendations
As indicated in the Carnegie Mellon self-study report document, the University should "provide cross-training for staff, allow staff to intern in other positions, and provide mentoring opportunities" The University should recognize current employees as valuable resources. 

To provide an adequate number of employees to perform every designated job. 

The Hay system should receive a critical and cautious comprehensive review. Instances where staff have the same titles but are in different job classifications should be changed. In addition, the University should disclose the Hay system criteria to all staff in order to help staff to understand the process.