Dear APA Members:
Today the Board of Higher Education informed the APA that the 2017-2020 APA agreement, which was ratified by the Association on May 10th, has been deemed by the Office of Employee Relations (OER) to exceed the financial parameters provided by the Governor for bargaining. As you may recall, the Governor authorized the Board of Higher Education to settle contracts with raises equal to 2% per year. OER has informed the Board of Higher Ed that, in their view, the APA Agreement exceeds these parameters because, in addition to the 2% per year raises, the contract includes additional cost items such as an increase in the clothing allowance for University Police Officers and an increase in the Cruise stipends for the Mass Maritime Academy. These stipends have always (historically) been addressed outside of the financial parameters offered by Administration.
What does this mean? Continue reading “APA Agreement Update”