HGEA units ratify
new agreement

The pact cuts leave for new
hires and institutes a "2 strikes"
policy for drug testing

---

By Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.com

Most members of the state's largest public employee union have ratified an agreement that changes vacation and sick-leave benefits for new workers hired after July 2, 2001.

The new memorandum of agreement between the Hawaii Government Employees Association and the state and counties says new employees will receive 12 sick days and 12 vacation days per year. After 20 years, vacation and sick days will increase to 24 per year.

HGEA members hired before July 2 receive 21 sick days and 21 vacation days a year.

The new agreement also changes the drug testing policy to "two strikes" instead of three. The change allows the state and counties to terminate an employee who tests positive for drugs twice.

HGEA Units 2, 3, 4, 9 and 13, representing blue-collar supervisory employees, white-collar nonsupervisory employees, white-collar supervisory employees, registered professional nurses and professional and scientific employees, have all ratified the agreement.

Units 6 and 8 members in the Department of Education and the University of Hawaii are still waiting for proposals from the state, said HGEA spokesman Randy Kusaka.

"There are no sticking points" for the two remaining units, Kusaka said. The proposals are separate from the arbitrated pay raises funded by the Legislature and approved by the governor, he said.

"The pay raises should be forthcoming."

State chief negotiator Davis Yogi said negotiations for the public school educational officers in Unit 6 -- primarily principals and vice principals -- and nonfaculty UH workers, in Unit 8, will be handled differently because these employees follow an academic calendar, unlike the United Public Workers and HGEA civil service units, who work the entire year.

"The proposal will be fashioned to meet the special working conditions of educational officers, which is a large part of the unit that works only 10 months," he said.

As for the UH employees, Yogi said: "They also have unusual working conditions that we have to be aware of in a different academic setting and different school years.

"Because of these differences, I've delegated the negotiations of these new benefits to the Department of Education and the University of Hawaii to take the lead, and I'll monitor it as it goes along."