For employees who qualify for Longevity payments, the payment will be included in the 10/25 paycheck.  To qualify, you must have 10 years of service as of 10/1/18 and a start date prior to 7/1/2011.  View the longevity charts or find them near the end of our newly printed "blue" contract books.
 

Tuition Reimbursement:  The Comptroller's Office is catching up on Tuition Reimbursements from 2015 through 2018.  There was a long period of time where funding and payments ceased as we entered a prolonged contract negotiations.  Since then, the race to validate and pay the reimbursement requests has been moving forward and we are at the point where the backlog is expected to be cleared within the next few weeks.  For A&R, the 2015 and 2016 claims should be completely paid up and the 2017 claims are almost complete.  We should have plenty of funding available to fill all valid requests

State employee pensions have become a topic of interest to the Hartford Courant in recent weeks.  Three weeks ago the Hartford Courant printed a negative Editorial about our pension funding and followed that with a negative and misinformed Op-Ed piece by David Stemmerman (i think that is his name, not really sure, don't really care).  Since then, the Courant has printed 2 pieces which counter the HC's position and defend the pensions and showcase a true understanding of state employee pensions.

Last week, Gov. Malloy's Op-Ed defending the pension system was printed by the Courant and then this

UPDATE on the Gubernatorial Debates:  The 3rd Gubernatorial Debate will be held on Wednesday 9/26/18 from 7-8pm.  It will be held at UConn-Storrs and televised by WFSB-3.  This will be the first time that Oz Griebel will be on stage with Ned Lamont and Bob Stefanowski...I suppose this debate will again be about whether the residents of CT want to elimate the income tax, punish state employment, and re-fight every social issue that has already been settled over the last 50 years.

As an aside, the Hartford Courant ran an editorial and an Op-Ed piece on State Employee Pensions recently, neither were favorable and neither understood that the deals in place are solid and completely address and resolve the funding issue (a repayment plan is in place and future Tier4 pensions are a hybrid of 401k-style and defined benefits with higher employee contribution rates).  The Courant was kind enough to allow Gov Dannel Malloy to respond to their negativity, and despite the shots we have taken at Dannel over the years, he has always focused on fixing the under-funded pension plan.  Dannel (or is it just Dan now?) wrote a nice op-ed piece 9/21/18 which is based on a full understanding of the issue rather than the "sky is falling" rhetoric we commonly hear...positive rather than negative, refreshing.  Read Dannel's Response.

SmartShopper:

A new part of our healthcare cost savings is called “SmartShopper”.  This is a program run by a company called “Vitals”.  The goal is to find high-quality, low-cost locations for a host of medical procedures/screenings.  Medical procedures can fluxuate in pricing by hundreds or thousands of dollars for the same procedure from one location to another.  If you use SmartShopper to find the more cost efficient locations/doctors, then you will be sent a cash reward. 

As consumers of medical services, we typically don’t know (and don’t ask) what is the actual cost of the procedure

Service ratings are governed by Article 10 of the A&R contract.  All P5 bargaining unit employees should receive their service rating 3 months prior to their "anniversy date of July 1 or January 1".  This typically means: ratings should be reviewed by the employee by September 30th or it is deemed to be "late".

If any category within your service rating is rated fair or unsatisfactory you should immediately contact a union steward to discuss the service rating and your available options.  All ratings with 2 Fairs or 1 unsat should be grieved.  There is a window period of 30 days to file the