On June 8th, 2010, UPEA staff and representatives presented at a DHRM Hearing that UPEA requested regarding proposed rule changes that are to go into effect on July 1st.
UPEA shared concerns regarding rule changes including modifications to the recruitment, highly sensitive position, employee development, and discrimination and harassment policies.
UPEA staff insisted that employees are concerned that job positions continue to be recruited through a "competitive" and transparent process as this is a core merit principle.
UPEA and DHRM staff held a healthy discussion on the highly sensitive positions and information regarding "household composition" being added. UPEA requested that this term either be removed or defined as it is vague in nature.
While no changes were made immediately, DHRM staff expressed a willingness to look at and change a few items that were discussed. It will remain to be seen what actually gets some attention.
As an additional note, because of the efforts of UPEA - with regard to the DHRM rule changes, a section was added into the rule that allowed RIF’d employees that were rehired within a year to reinstate their Program I Sick Leave hours rather than having them all go back to Program II Sick Leave. This benefits employees as they will be able to use earned Program I hours upon retirement.
