No need to grease the skids of 'streamlining' state personnel
Published July 22, 2013
Editorial, News and Observer, July 21, 2013.
Now, one can’t blame state employees for being a little hesitant to support Gov. Pat McCrory’s desire to “streamline” the State Personnel Act, which is a way of saying he wants to make it easier to fire state workers.
Oh, he says it’s because the law makes it so hard to fire people that sometimes managers don’t even bother when they should. Besides, McCrory has told groups on the stump, the same law makes it hard for him to single out people for praise and more money, too.
But remember: This is the governor who once referred to some state workers as “seat warmers.” And because some state employees and their representatives have criticized Republican policies, those employees are naturally suspicious that “streamlining” might be just another term for “payback.”
State workers in many cases are paid more modest wages than many could make in private business, but state employment brings with it a pretty good pension plan and security, through the personnel act, against politically motivated firings. That seems a pretty good tradeoff. It does not need changing.
July 22, 2013 at 10:12 am
Mary Few says:
It is not difficult to fire state employees. I would know, I was a state employee that was fired. I reported fraud, waste and abuse. I was assaulted by my supervisor at DMA both verbally and physically. The next day I was put on paid leave for investigation. The reason stated that I had applied for unemployment while employed. Something I had not done and something I was cleared of by the Employment Security Commission. After being on paid suspension for a month I was ultimately fired for insubordination and for good measure they left those previously dropped unemployment accusations in the letter. State employees are allowed an appeal but it was scheduled for the date I was in the hospital having chemotherapy. I requested a one week extension (no I wasn't being paid at this time) and it was denied. The hearing was apparently held without me and the ultimate letter even acted as if they didn't know why I wasn't there. I've sought help from just about everyone you can think of. My state senator and representative could care less and the Governor didn't even acknowledge the email. In a recent follow up, as firing me has not been enough, DMA has interfered with all subsequent employment offers, I contacted these same government officials and now no one acknowledges the emails, much less offer any help. However, none of these private employers are wiling to protect DMA and have been very straight forward with the fact that they have been threatened to have their medicaid funding cut if the private employers hired me. The officials may not listen but now an attorney is! Sadly, all I wanted was to go back to work now that my health will allow. I NEVER wanted to go back to the state. The pay is low, the middle management at Medicaid is psychotic on a good day, and there is no security and the retirement is lousy in comparison to Duke.
Highly perpetrated myths, 1) you can't fire a state employee, 2) the benefits and pay are good......worst insurance and retirement I have ever had in my entire 20 year career!! Not kidding!
Trust me, there are plenty of state workers that NEED to go. Sadly, they probably will not be the ones to go.
July 22, 2013 at 1:17 pm
Norm Kelly says:
Just like the private sector, there are definitely state employees who are simply seat warmers. The only difference I see is that private sector employees can be gotten rid of with a reasonable amount of effort for being simple seat warmers. Government employees should not be given a pass just because they are government employees. Political cronyism shouldn't be the cause of any government worker losing their job. I'm willing to bet the number of times that (potentially) happens in any year can be counted on 1 hand. Just like in the private sector, people are not terminated just for the hell of it. State employees, in some cases, may not make as much as their private sector counterparts. But does that mean great benefits, great pensions, and life-time jobs should be the logical trade-off? I'm not a betting man, but I'd be willing to bet that if private sector employees (that means tax payers!) could be shown that public sector employees would be paid at the same level as private sector, benefits would be similar to private sector, and pensions would be comparable to private sector, then we'd be willing to let the public sector employees be paid more while they are working. Too often what we hear about is government employees who are found to be violating laws/moral codes/business practices and are simply put on temporary administrative paid leave. Like extra paid time off is a major punishment! Private sector employees are let go/fired/transferred to another department to see if they work out better there before being terminated.
Treat government employees similar to the way private sector employees are treated, then we'll worry about whether the personnel laws are fair.
Of course, the alternative and probably better idea is to contract out to private sector businesses many of the jobs that are currently done by government employees. At all levels of government. It's much easier to terminate a contract and/or a contract employee than it is to terminate a government employee. And it spurs private sector employment.
July 22, 2013 at 6:36 pm
dj anderson says:
State jobs are good jobs and hard to get. There is truth to there being 'seat warmer' jobs in state government. Having worked for the state 3 times in my life I've seen enough to know. I will say that things have improved over the years regarding pay and employment being more fair.
Once again, I'll have to say that people should not be surprised with Republicans making changes. Voters wanted change. We shall see if they like the changes, and just how change will happen.
