Find contact information for your local Labor Relations Representative
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Step-by-step guide to the Grievance Process
A guide to help you through the Probationary Period
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A list of Senators, Assemblymembers, and Government Officials that ACSS Endorses
Support Candidates that protect the best interest of Excluded Employees
Periodic updates on Legislative Bills that ACSS monitors
ACSS meetings held at YOUR Department
Annual Event held in the State Capitol
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Everything you need to know about ACSS Elections.
The Triennial event for ACSS Elections and Policy Changes
In order to fix California's budget defecit, ACSS supports Gov. Brown's temporary, modest revenue increases.
Republican legislators think they've found a better way to balance the budget - by slashing your salary yet again.
No, you didn't suddenly wake up in the middle of the Schwarzenegger administration again; however, if you and your family aren't voting to pass Gov. Brown's modest revenue increases on the General Eleciton ballot you may soon be feeling "Total Recall".
The GOP budget plan - which would unilaterally force at least 4.6% pay cuts on state employees in the form of furloughs or salary reductions - also includes provisions to siphon millions of dollars away from early childhood development programs, affordable housing programs, and mental health services.
Read more about Gov. Brown's solution to the budget deficit after the jump.
The Assembly Committee on Public Employees, Retirement and Security voted today in favor of legislation that will, among other things, impact the timeline of adverse actions and will give priority to state employees when filling public positions.
In February, Assemblymember Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento) introduced Assembly Bill 1655 - dubbed the Public Employees' Bill of Rights Act - that would reduce the statute of limitations on serving an adverse action against any state employee from three years to one year. In addition, the bill stipulates that state employees shall be entitled to priority over third-party contractors when filling public positions.
The original version of Assm. Dickinson's bill gave rank-and-file state employees preference in filling positions ahead of excluded employees (in addition to outside contractors); however, Assm. Dickinson has since revised the bill to remove the reference to excluded employees.
Read more about how AB 1655 will affect supervisors and managers after the jump.
ACSS 2012 Chapter Elections are ramping up yet again.
As members were previously notified, the deadline to submit nomination consent forms and candidate statements was March 26th at 5 p.m.
The next step in the elections process will be HQ sending out elections packets - including candidate statements, ballots, instructions, and more - to all ACSS members in good standing no later than April 20th.
This is your chance to elect who will lead you at a local level and who will represent your chapter at key events.
Have questions regarding elections in the meantime? Contact ACSS Administrative Assistant Martina McKenzie at mmckenzie@calcsea.org
State supervisors and managers from a multitude of departments joined ACSS President Arlene Espinoza at Lobby Day 2012 in recogonizing Assemblymember Joan Buchanan for her work on behalf of excluded employees.
President Espinoza presented Assm. Buchanan with a custom mounted and engraved antique scale at the recognition ceremony, declaring "For far too long this state has balanced its budget on the backs of employees that are excluded from collective bargaining."
"One legislator in particular has dedicated her time and efforts to attempting to correct the imbalanced policies that unfairly target management employees," she continued.
"It is our sincerest hope that she will continue to fight with the Association of California State Supervisors to end pay inequity between supervisors and those they supervise, to protect our earned benefits, and to encourage the state to better support its most skilled employees."
President Espinoza presented Assm. Buchanan with a 150-year-old antique balancing scale, representing not only the state's history of imbalanced policies against excluded employees, but also symbolizing Assm. Buchanan's work to correct those imbalances.
Though the weather may not have cooperated, Lobby Day 2012 proved to be a great success for ACSS members and for excluded employees statewide.
Supervisors and managers from all over the state braved the cold and rain and spent the day meeting with legislators and explaining how attacks on the careers and benefits of excluded employees would affect them personally.
Our largest turnout in history guaranteed that the entire Capitol heard the voice of ACSS calling on legislators to protect our pensions, support revenue increases, and defeat political censorship of non-partisan groups.
Head to our Lobby Day page now to see photos of the event.
Get ready for continued political action throughout the coming months, and we look forward to seeing even more of you next year!
Since proposing his revenue increase ballot measure, Gov. Brown has been working to convince several groups to drop duplicate or additional revenue increase measures from the 2012 General Election ballot.
One of the longest holdouts - the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) - finally agreed to a compromise with Gov. Brown after months of debate.
The revised ballot measure will now raise sales tax by a mere quarter cent, as opposed to the half cent increase proposed in Brown's original plan.
In addition, the revised measure includes slightly higher taxes on high income households - in particular the top 1% of all earners in California.
Your ACSS is dedicated to supporting Gov. Brown's revenue increases - and those revenue increases alone - in order to avoid catastrophic cuts to education and further layoffs within CDCR.
Your ACSS has received an urgent message from CalPERS related to an upcoming hike in additional retirement service credit - also known as "airtime" - purchase costs.
According to CalPERS, If you are considering purchasing airtime in the near future, you may want to put in a request before March 15th.
For requests received after March 15th, CalPERS has stated that the cost to purchase airtime could be as much as 13% higher (on top of a 23% increase in 2010).
You may obtain additional information at www.calpers.ca.gov or by logging in at www.mycalpers.com
Disclaimer: Please note that this information and the suggestion to purchase airtime now was provided by CalPERS, and is not intended as an official recommendation to do so by ACSS.
Join ACSS at the Capitol on March 14th for our 12th annual Ice Cream Social.
All members of the public are welcome to attend this free event.
ACSS Ice Cream Social
Wednesday, March 14th 3:00 PM Capitol Building Basement Cafeteria
Democrats have introduced legislation that would require private sector employers to take slightly better care of their employees.
Senate Bill 1234, introduced by Sen. Kevin De Leon (D-L.A.), would require businesses with five or more employees to enroll them in a defined benefit program or offer a comparable alternative plan.
Supporting legislators, including Senate President Pro Tem Darrel Steinberg and Assemblymember Warren Furutani, agree that private sector employees are in need of the same retirement support that special interest groups seek to eliminate for public employees.
"I hear a lot about 'pension envy,'" said Assm. Furutani.
The legislation dropped shortly after a group of Republican legislators submitted a "cut-and-paste" version of Governor Jerry Brown's aggressive pension reform scheme.
You can expect the debate on your earned benefits to heat up even further as your peers address legislators at ACSS Lobby Day in March.
Furloughs were devastating to all state employees. That is why your ACSS - along with organizations like SEIU - fought so hard for so long to overturn them.
In the end, SEIU procured back pay for rank and file employees at five agencies by agreeing to drop all ongoing furlough litigation. Your ACSS and other organizations then successfully fought to get the settlement extended to excluded employees in the impacted agencies.
So why isn't your department on the list of those that received back pay?
An appellate court decision dictated the criterion for exclusion from furloughs:
The court declared furloughs legal for all state agencies except those that did not receive "an item of appropriation" from the annual budget act. The five agencies in the settlement - First 5 California, Prison Industry Authority, California Earthquake Authority, California Housing Finance Agency, and California State Lottery - represent the agencies that receive no money through the budget act. Essentially, these five agencies fall outside the budget process and can therefore compensate employees without impacting the state's General Fund.
Source: SEIU Furlough Litigation Settlement FAQ
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