Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

July 5, 2002

Merit bumping affects many

by Linda Charles
When a faculty or professional and scientific position is eliminated, the person in the position and his or her department is affected. When a merit position covered by the AFSCME contract is eliminated, the resulting trickle-down process may affect several merit staff and departments, creating a university-wide impact.

That's what has happened at Iowa State over the past year as state budget cuts and reversions have resulted in an operating budget for FY03 that's $34.4 million less than a year ago. Departments and units across campus have tightened their belts in various ways, including eliminating positions.

The merit contract system is based on seniority, and those with more seniority may "bump" (take the job of) those with less seniority when positions are eliminated, said Carla Espinoza, director of human resource services (HRS). Seniority is determined by the date a person begins work at Iowa State, not the date he or she begins a certain job.

How it works
Here's a hypothetical example of how the system works.

"Ty," a clerk III in the math department, was hired at Iowa State on June 23, 1995. The math department eliminates Ty's position due to budget cuts. HRS staff are notified about the position elimination and first check for any vacancies that Ty is qualified to fill.

If there are no vacancies, and if Ty isn't the least senior clerk III, he may bump the clerk III who has the least seniority (regardless of what department that person is in).

HRS staff identify that person as "Mae," a clerk III in the physics department who was hired at Iowa State on May 6, 1998. Ty is qualified to do her job and bumps her.

Mae now may bump the least senior clerk II employee, as long as Mae has more seniority. Mae cannot bump anyone in a clerk III position because she has the least seniority in that classification. So, HRS staff check out those in the clerk II position.

Several people in clerk II positions were hired by the university before Mae, so she cannot bump them. However, "Jud" (the least senior clerk II at ISU and working in the English department) was hired by the university on Jan. 6, 1999. Mae moves into Jud's position.

Jud can bump the least senior employee in the clerk I classification, as long as that employee has less seniority than Jud. But there is a vacancy in a clerk I position, so Jud moves into that job.

Frustration sets in
What frustrates both departmental and human resources personnel is the lack of control over who gets bumped.

"Departments get comfortable with employees and become loyal to those employees," Espinoza said. "They have difficulty with the idea that an employee who is trained to do the job and does it excellently gets bumped and they end up with an employee they did not select. They have to get reacquainted with the new employee and start the training process again.

"For the most part, employees are trying very hard to cooperate with the process because they want to stay employed," Espinoza said. "And departments have worked very hard to help us administer this process, but understandably, they sometimes become frustrated. They don't understand the process was not created by us. We just administer it. And it isn't just their employee who is being affected. Our objective is to keep people employed."

Each case is different
HRS staff work with merit staff who are laid off on a case-by-case basis, Espinoza said. "Each case is different."

In the hypothetical case, Ty would not be able to bump Mae if her job required a special skill Ty didn't have. However, university officials must justify the need for special skills to the Iowa Department of Personnel.

"We must present a pretty good rationale to get a dispensation," Espinoza said.

Merit staff in supervisory positions are affected slightly differently, Espinoza said. They are not covered by the AFSCME contract, but by Board of Regents, State of Iowa, rules, which allow performance appraisals to be factored in with seniority to decide who gets bumped.

Espinoza and her staff have been informed that there is a potential for additional cuts in some of the research centers, but they won't know the impact of those cuts for a while.

When layoff plans were approved by the Iowa Department of Personnel in May, there were approximately 35 employees identified for layoff, including four ISU Foundation employees. Due to retirements, resignations to accept other employment and vacancies, there are seven employees who are bumping to a lower classification; 14 who are being laid off; one separation during probation; and one employee whose hours were reduced.