-05/06/26
General Wage Increases and Back Pay: Now that the contract is complete and there is a 2.5% GWI & Step/TSP due retroactive to 2025, everyone wants to know when this money will hit their paychecks. This will be completed in two phases: First will be a change to your hourly rate/step and the second phase will be your back-pay. We expect that the 2025 GWI and Step will be applied first and is targeted to be in your June 12 paycheck. Once the GWI and Steps are applied, then the back pay is no longer accruing and it gives payroll units the ability to calculate each individual's back pay amount. This back-pay process will take several pay periods before it is completed and the current expectation is the back-pay will be in your August 21 paycheck. Side-note: employees in the Judicial Branch and CEUI employees will see their raises/back-pay first as their contract and legislative approval preceded our contract/approval.
The legislative session ends/ended Wednesday May 6...with it comes the dissolution of the Office of Health Strategy (OHS). Most of the OHS funding streams will be moved to other agencies and most of the employees will follow those funding streams. A large portion of funding/employees will be headed to the Dept of Health located at 410 Capitol Ave. The DOH building however will be undergoing renovations so the employees will mostly be teleworking through the summer as the office will be intermittently closed to employees during the renovation.
The month of May brings with it 2 major items for State Employees: the telework application window and healthcare open enrollment.
Telework Applications MUST be submitted every 6 months, do not get comfortable and think your prior submission simply rolls into the next submission period, it does not, you need to re-submit every 6 months (the portal from your CORE-CT sign-in should open around mid-May).
Healthcare Open Enrollment...this window is only open from May 1 through May 31. If you do nothing, your health coverage stays as is and can't be changed until July 2027 (unless there is a "life-event"). This year the Comptroller's Office provided the standard Payroll Deduction Chart and the Coverage Comparison Chart but the Comptroller's Office added a handy "quiz" to help you select a medical/dental plan that fits your current situation.
165 Capitol Building will be adding some new security measures, we are still reviewing the plan/technology but it appears to be non-invasive and will not maintain records/track individuals.
On the flip side of this, Kronos is back in fashion as a log in/out tool at DMHAS. No one understands why. This system was an over-priced mess the first time the State pursued it several years ago and since then UKG has laid off hundreds (perhaps thousands since 2024). Despite UKGs internal turmoil, DMHAS still thinks it is important for the agency to have an expensive tool which will duplicate records they already can attain. Certainly there are lingering questions about the necessity of Kronos and the glaring waste of tax-payer dollars, but we also have concerns about privacy, usefulness, accuracy, and contract violations. In particular, A&R will stand by it's position that our contract explicitly rejects logging in/out during the lunch periods (unless on pure-flex) and we will defend our contract once we believe that Kronos is being misused...see you soon DMHAS.