5.5 ERMUSR 09-13-2022______________________________________________________________________________
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UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO:
ERMU Commission
FROM:
Theresa Slominski - General Manager
MEETING DATE:
September 13, 2022
AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
5.5
SUBJECT:
Wage & Benefits Committee Update
ACTION REQUESTED:
None
DISCUSSION:
An open meeting with the Wage & Benefits Committee (WBC) was held on August 9 for
employees to submit wage and benefit suggestions for consideration by the Committee. A
representative group of employees presented four suggestions and the document they
prepared is attached.
• The first request was for consideration of a 5% increase in wages to hopefully stay
ahead of a negative curve, as the metro average is based on several organizations with
long-standing active contracts.
• The second request was upon retirement, to have a 100% payout (instead of 50%) to
the Health Care Savings Plan of accrued sick pay.
• The third request was for three additional PTO days to use for sick pay situations for
non-remote staff, that are “use it or lose it”.
• The fourth request was to increase the Utilities Performance Metric Incentive
Compensation from 2% to 4%.
HR Generalist Megan Zachman has been gathering information from like utilities for all the
above requests and will have information to review by September 2. Due to scheduling
conflicts, the WBC will not be able to meet until September 14 to discuss the items requested at
the open meeting and the information gathered. The Committee will meet and bring back any
proposals to the October meeting.
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Wage & Benefit Committee Meeting – Staff Conversations – August 2022
1. Wage Adjustment – We are asking for the consideration of a 5% increase in wage. The current labor market is
booming and highly competitive. Our higher ask is based primarily on retention efforts and for the
unprecedented times with which we are under. Our skilled, smaller work group feels the loss of one employee
for many months to years depending on the leaving employee’s institutional knowledge and skill level. We all
pick up the slack and it adds to the responsibility for too many to make up for it, especially as we run bare bones
style compared to others in the industry. If we can help to retain these great employees through this labor
market, we will hopefully stay ahead of a negative curve, as 3% in the metro is based off several organizations
with long-standing active contracts. We would not only like to retain, but also attract potential hires. Other
organizations have hiring bonuses, but we rather work on retention, as that has the highest value to the
organization. A 3% increase seems to be a standard annual mark, yet this year is not in that realm for all work
groups and people in general. Everyone knows the dollar value of retention issues for the hiring process,
training costs and the timeline to get them to the ERMU standard, along with the many impacts each day on
tasks and workplace morale. This approach would hopefully curb those concerns.
2. Sick Time Payout – Currently 50% payout into the Health Care Savings Plan (HCSP) at the time of departure &
retirement. We were able to ask several organizations what they do for payout, and it is variety across the
board. Some, like Shakopee pay up to 100% into the HCSP based on years employed with longevity in mind, and
some others require the employee to use it instead of a pay out, where they are gone for weeks or months at
the end of employment, and the others have a bit of everything. We would appreciate consideration of 100%
payout upon retirement, to support longevity efforts. (Handbook: Page 48, Item 45 – 3)
3. PTO Adjustment for Non-Remote Workers – There is a noted lack of flexibility for those not able to work
remotely and with an adjustment for the individuals that are not able to work from home, we would hope for
the amendment of allowing three additional PTO days. Those that are considered sick or contagious can often
work from home, and often do choose to work when they are made to stay home for proper contagion protocol.
The non-remote workers or those that opt out of remote work, with the same circumstances affronting them
must use their sick time because their job does not have the option to be done at home. That can eat into a lot
of leave time, especially if the family is dealing with the chain reaction of quarantine, which is quite typical these
days. That leads to more time that one set of workers uses up their leave time and the others can often
effectively work from home while saving leave time with flexibility. The alterations of PTO time for non-remote
workers would greatly help to allow a good faith effort of pliability, which is extremely helpful for our families
and further our competitive stance for future new hires in this progressive market.
4. UPMIC – Increase bonus metrics by 2%, up to 4% - With the market and economy changes, 4% for a bonus will
be a bit more balanced in incentivized reward. In the last several years of the UPMIC program, we had obtained
100% of the 2% possible, only the initial year and have not made 100% since. From inception, most items that
have ever fallen short are not dependent on the employee’s actual work production or work ethic, it’s been the
opposite if you consider the items that did not meet metric standards. The bonus metric points were negatively
impacted by employees leaving, which tends to compound the negative of losing a person as we feel the loss
financially while also trying to help sustain tasks in their absence. Which then only creates another path to
negative morale. Safety comes first and foremost with our fieldwork, and we cannot comprise that in the name
of a bonus for CAIDI/SAIDI parameters (outage times), in which we have seen the areas dip from time to time, as
they are not on a lack of effort or systematic concern or procedure. This is a helpful incentive, and it is metrics
based, so the employees must continue their positive efforts to meet criteria appropriately. When we here at
ERMU see the majority leave because of money, this is a great way to have standards and reward for quality.
We again would find this item favorable for company retention to increase to 4% for the UPMIC bonus, to push
through the economic changes and encourage the workplace to continually work hard and be safe.
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