-UPDATE 4/27/23:  The "Look-up" portal may be delayed until the first week of May as the underlying data set is still be reviewed

The Comptroller's Office has created a portal for employees to review their pandemic pay award (the portal may be available as early as Monday 4/24/23).

Link to the Look-up Portal

If you plug in your information and do not get a result, then you are not scheduled to receive a Pandemic Pay award.  Payment is expected in the June 15 paycheck.

To Qualify for an Award: 
The timeframe for determining whether you receive an award is all hours worked outside

The rights of employees to the presence of a union steward during investigatory interviews was announced by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1975 in NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc. Since that case involved a clerk being investigated by the Weingarten Company, these rights have become known as Weingarten Rights.  An investigatory inverview occurs when a supervisor questions an employee to obtain information that could be used as a basis for dicipline or asks an employee to defend his or her conduct.

If an employee has a reasonable belief that discipline or other adverse consequences may result from what he

4/19/23

Longevity - Reminder that the final paycheck in April and the final paycheck in October are when "Longevity" payments are made for those who qualify (must have over 10 years of service and hired prior to July 1, 2011); this means that Longevity payments are due in this week's paycheck.

A&R Scholarship Winners for 2023

A&R would like to congratulate the winners of our annual Scholarship Awards and thank our Scholarship Cmte members for their time and efforts in making this happen every year.

$2,500 Harry Zilber Scholarship Award winner: Krystal Li, daughter of Hong Chen (DCP

• What: Membership Meeting
• When: Noon Tuesday May 23
• Where: DEEP Russell Room, 79 Elm Street, Hartford
• Why: No particular reason - because we are tired of the pandemic

Union meeting to be held at DEEP in the Russell room at noon on Tuesday, May 23^rd

Owing to the pandemic, it has been a long time since we held our last in-agency union meeting.  We are looking to buck that trend.  We feel the time is appropriate to reengage with the membership in face-to-face meetings.  We figured we would start at DEEP.  This is an impromptu meeting.  We are not providing lunch or anything fancy, but officers of the union will be in the Russell room at 12:00 noon to meet with members, distribute contract books, and to hear your concerns about your workplace.  We look forward to seeing you there.

-Updated 4/12/23 - The Pandemic Pay Award passed the full Senate floor vote.  The Pandemic Pay award had a provision that the payment was to be paid within 90 days, so expect a further update soon.  If you want to assess your personal Pandemic Pay award, the calculations are as follows (remember, you must meet the minimum threshold of 180 hours)

High Risk employees (employees who were first responders, worked in congregate settings, or worked in a healthcare facility).
For employees in the High Risk environment the Pandemic Pay formula is as follows:  $250 for the first 180hrs of Regular work and an additional $136 for each 100hrs of Regular work beyond that (must reach that 180hrs to qualify).
The High Risk Overtime formula is: $270 for the first 200hrs of OT and then an additional $136 for each 100hrs of OT above that (must reach that 200hrs of OT to qualify).

Low Risk employees (are all other employees who were required to work in person).
For employees in the Low Risk environment the Pandemic Pay formula is as follows:  $125 for the first 180hrs of Regular work and an additional $68 for each 100hrs of Regular work beyond that (must reach that 180hrs to qualify).
The Low Risk Overtime formula is: $135 for the first 200hrs of OT and then an additional $68 for each 100hrs of OT above that (must reach that 200hrs of OT to qualify).

-Updated 4/5/23 - The Pandemic Pay Award passed the full House floor vote 129-15 with 7 Absent...Full Senate vote is expected the 2nd week of April.
-Updated 4/3/23
- 3/31/23

We haven't put much emphasis on the current Legislative session, however, there are a couple of updates that are impactful for A&R members:

First: the Pandemic Pay award passed the House and Senate votes in the Appropriations Cmte (the House had only 1 "nay" vote and the Senate had only one "nay" vote).  We are now expecting that this will go to a full floor vote on Wednesday 4/5/23 (that's 2 days after UConn wins the National Championship!!)...to support this bill, all State Employees are encouraged to sign on to this "ActionNetwork" letter and let your Representatives know that you want them to support the passing of this arbitration award...to sign this letter, simply follow this link

Second: a bill has come out of the GAE Committee which would exempt from FOI disclosing the residential addresses of all employees of the Attorney General's Office.  This Bill was initiated by Attorney General William Tong and fully supported by our sister union ACAAG (which covers the Assistant Attorneys Generals).  This bill, if passed and signed, would cover all employees within the OAG and prevent the public release of residential information.

Third:  AFT-CT has 2 "Meet your Legislator Events Upcoming".  These are neat events where several Legislators from the region come and sit at table with State Employees and can just talk about any topic they wish. There is an event at Margaritas in East Hartford on Saturday April 1 from 12:30 to 2:30 and another at Lakeview in Coventry on April 15 from 12:00 to 2pm.  To attend, AFT-CT asks that you pre-register so they can order enough food for the event, follow this link to register

-3/24/23

Yesterday, many agencies sent out a "reminder" guidance regarding time-sheet coding for the snow day.  A&R wants to let everyone know that we stand by our assessment of our contract language and the Telework language which states if you were scheduled for an "in-office" day when the buildings were closed you cannot be compelled to telework nor would Vac/PL be charged...Despite the clear language and the several areas in our contract which we cover this topic, the State's directive was to Telework if possible or charge Vac/PL.  So if you were denied LWGOV and were therefore forced to use Vac/PL time to cover the day, A&R has filed the grievance to recover this charge.  It is also our intention in the grievance to address the issue of those who were scheduled to be in-office but felt compelled to telework based on the agency directive to do so.  There is no further update on this issue, simply, the State re-issued its guidance to employees so we wanted to ensure the A&R membership that we continue to assert that this is incorrect guidance and that we have filed the grievance reflecting that assessment.