570 State Staffers Now Represented

Written by Stan Milam, of Capitol News Service

September 24, 2000

Despite all the state employee unions and organizations, a group of more than 550 employees was without any kind of representation until earlier this month when the Council for Non-represented Classified Staff was created and had its first meeting.

Jim Stratton, the director of classified personnel at UW-Madison, says the new organization finally provides representation to the 570 classified state employees not represented by a union.

Classified employees are covered by the state’s civil service system. Non-classified employees include political appointees who are not covered under civil service.

“As a group, these employees have not been recognized as much as they should be,” Stratton said. “Individually, the employees have been recognized by their supervisors but not really as a group.”

The new council met for the first time September 7. Four committees were formed to address non-represented employees’ concerns.

The Compensation and Personnel Issues Committee will make recommendations to the Department of Employment Relations and the internal supervisors at UW-Madison. The Professional Development, Mentoring and Recognition Committee will offer advice to Stratton’s office on such issues as professional development, recruitment and retention.

The Awareness and Campus Community Committee will work to improve the image of non-represented classified employees, and the Nomination Committee will submit names for future members of the council and campus-wide committees.

Stratton said the formation of the council has been a popular move.

“We have seen a lot of enthusiasm not only from the employees affected, but from the school’s provost, John Wiley, as well.” Stratton said. Wiley is the second in command at UW-Madison under Chancellor David Ward.

One of Wiley’s main responsibilities is internal management on the campus.

“The feeling was that this group was not being adequately represented,” Stratton said.

“One thing that’s unique about UW-Madison is its representative system,” he said. “Faculty and academic staff are represented under a governance system established by law. This new council will give non-represented classified employees that same kind of representation, although it won’t be written into state law.”

At its September 7 meeting, the council adopted bylaws that include the following general objective: To promote networking, communications, understanding and cooperation among the non-represented staff, the faculty, academic staff, students and the university administration.

The council is made up of nine members. Seven are elected. Two members are appointed by the school’s administration.

For the next couple of months, the council committees will gather information and solicit comments from employees.

“The next major event for us is our meeting in December”, Stratton said. “At that meeting, we will go over the information we’ve collected at the committee level and begin to prepare for the upcoming statewide hearings on compensation.”

The Department of Employment Relations hold biennial hearings on compensation at various locations around the state. For the first time, non-represented classified employees will have a unified voice at those hearings, Stratton said.

“This is probably the most important project we’ll have for the first few months of our existence,” he said. “I believe most of the non-represented classified employees believe they have not had much say in very many issues including compensation. For the most part, most employees believe their raises have not kept up in recent years.”

Stratton can be reached at (608) 262-3806.