SEIU Local 1000 and State reach agreement on Actuary Series Consolidation

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The State of California is continuing its efforts to consolidate and streamline the many outdated and unnecessary state civil service classifications as part of its Civil Service Improvement (CSI) project. On April 8, 2022, a member-led bargaining team of impacted actuaries and actuarial assistants reached agreement on a Side Letter to our current MOU with respect to the State’s actuarial members.

Actuaries for the State secure our retirement benefits, fund our health care benefits, and regulate insurance companies to make sure that consumers are protected and the premiums Californians pay for many insurance products (such as life, automobile, homeowners, and workers compensation insurance) are fair.

Leading the bargaining table for Local 1000 was Stuart Bennett, Senior Pension Actuary for CalPERS, Job Steward, Bargaining Unit 1 DBUR and Bargaining Unit 1 BUNC member, who has been organizing our member actuaries since 2015. The Team had several Meet & Confer meetings with CalHR beginning on December 23, 2021, working through several disparities and inconsistencies affecting our members with regard to salaries, misallocations, and qualifications.

Some of our key wins include: 

  • A 14.9% salary range increase for entry level Actuarial Analysts
     
  • A 5% increase in the maximum salary range for journey level Actuarial Analysts and Senior Actuarial Analysts
     
  • A new range B for the Actuary Classification with a 9% higher maximum salary range to aid in employee retention
     
  • Simplification and salary parity amongst the different actuary specializations
  • The establishment of a new task force to study the feasibility of an incentive award program for the Actuary Series
     
  • A process to resolve in a timely fashion any misallocations of staff performing actuarial work for State agencies with actuarial offices and a commitment from those agencies to review their current non-actuarial classifications in light of the new series

Susan Rodriguez, Chair of Bargaining Unit 1 and a member of the Team, noted the importance of member power in driving results and also how lessons learned in this consolidation process will inform our future Unit 1 bargaining efforts. We look forward to upcoming contract negotiations in 2023 to further address all our Unit 1 member needs when it comes to compensation and, in particular, credential differentials for specialized knowledge of our professionals.

The consolidation proposal will now move to the State Personnel Board for approval at their May board meeting with the terms of the Side Letter effective upon adoption. 

Click here to see the Side Letter Agreement.