Cayetano wants
separate deal
on HSTA bonuses

He says that way the rest of
the contract, which is
undisputed, can be implemented

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By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

Gov. Ben Cayetano is proposing to resolve the stalemate with the Hawaii State Teachers Association by negotiating the disputed issue of pay bonuses as a separate contract.

"We are willing, if the HSTA is willing, to enter in a contract for all of the items on which there is no question and separate this one item and negotiate this one item as a separate agreement," the governor said. "We will not do it if it's supposed to be part of the same contract."

The disagreement stems from a negotiated 3 percent bonus for teachers with master's degrees and professional diplomas.

The dispute now centers on whether those bonuses are to be paid once or twice.

Cayetano said isolating the controversy from the main contract would mean that teachers would need to ratify the contract again without that section.

Joan Husted, HSTA chief negotiator, said she hasn't seen a proposal from the governor but is troubled by what she has heard.

"It doesn't sound very good," Husted said. "We're not quite sure what it means."

If an agreement isn't reached, the union said options available to it include filing a lawsuit or going on strike again.

A tentative agreement in April ended a three-week walkout by schoolteachers.

But state officials say the final contract language is in conflict with the understanding reached at the bargaining table that the bonuses were for one year only.

The union contends, however, that the contract language is clear in setting the bonuses for each of the last two years of the contract.

Teachers aren't happy the dispute continues to remain unresolved, Husted said. "They're getting angrier," Husted said. "They're upset."

Husted said that the union had proposed implementing all other aspects of the contract while continuing talks on the bonuses, which would remain part of the main contract.

She said if the bonuses are treated as a separate contract then she is worried that the first year of bonuses -- which she said both sides are in agreement on -- could be in jeopardy.

"If we take it out of the contract, what assurances do we have that they won't change it?" Husted said.

The governor, however, is concerned that by keeping the bonuses part of the contract, the state becomes vulnerable.

"It opens us up to litigation in all of that, and that's not the way we want to go," he said.

Schools Superintendent Paul LeMahieu said both sides need to be encouraged to come to a solution. "I think anything that breaks the impasse is most welcomed," LeMahieu said. "There may be better ways or worse ways, but any way that gets it done is OK with me."

By allowing the pay raises, retention bonuses and other areas of the contract to be implemented while the discussions on the bonuses continue, those currently "distracted" by the controversy can get on with the business of educating children, LeMahieu said.

"Let's get those things in place," he said. "Let's let the people who are disagreeing about one point continue to talk about that point."

LeMahieu said he was the one who went to the governor during the strike to propose using a "windfall" $6.7 million in federal impact aid to pay for the bonuses.

"To be really honest with you, the issue of one year, two years never came up in our conversation, but we said $6.7 million and if you do the arithmetic, it only supports one award of that bonus," LeMahieu said.

LeMahieu said the current tally of teachers who qualify for the bonus now brings the cost to $9.7 million.

The governor said yesterday that the state is willing to pay for whatever the one-year cost would be.