The Bargaining Team is asking members the following questions to guide discussions at the table towards a fairer, more transparent process which recognizes members contributions:
Does your Classification and Recruitment Form (CARF) match your actual job responsibilities, including being updated when appropriate?
Does your annual Staff Compensation Program (SCP) evaluation reflect the actual work and change in nature of your work?
Have you attempted a self-initiated reclassification utilizing Article 35 – Reclassification – Union of Rutgers Administrators of our contract? What was the result? Were you satisfied with the process and result?
On the bargaining survey, members made the following comments about the reclassification process at Rutgers:
- I have long felt I am underpaid. I recently was approved for a reclassification with higher pay, but HR is sitting on it. I have a PhD and I am contributing a lot. The higher rate is better, but still not high enough for my liking.
- I’ve been here for over 16 years and got reclassified for the first time in October. I feel my pay is drastically below my peers.
- After many years of being paid way too little, I have tremendous amounts of debt that I’m still trying to pay off, so my take-home pay doesn’t cover everything. If I had been able to reclassify my position years ago, I might be okay now, but honestly, I was grossly underpaid when I was hired, and I’ve never really caught up.
- There are way too many people left behind on merit, not being aware of the in-grade reclassification or that find it too burdensome. The annual April review should do a better job of capturing the changes in an employee’s role and compensating fairly based on those changes.
- Our CARFs for each grade have no standardization and that is a real problem when it comes to reclassifications and in-grades.
- My role recently changed and now I the only person in our department coordinating multiple programs, which means more budgets to manage, more themes to research, more audiences to convene, and more partners to collaborate with. Still, my reclassification request was denied. Saying that the scope is the same seems to be a cop-out to paying employees what they are worth. The minimum salary and raises should match the rising cost of living plus increase in commuting costs in New Jersey.
Any of the above sound familiar? Please share your experiences and perspectives on the reclassification process and career growth at Rutgers. We will use the submissions to learn from each other and help the Bargaining Team make a strong argument for improving the reclassification process at the bargaining table.
