What changes is the Utah Legislature making to state employees' benefits?

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah lawmakers have advanced a bill to make significant changes to the benefits each state employee receives, including what leave they receive and how their 401(k) plans are matched.

One of the most notable changes being made by SB229 is merging employees' sick leave and vacation leave into one pool of paid time off. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, who presented it to the House Government Operations Committee on Monday.

"The way that we are currently structuring our leave plan is not attractive for most people. Under this scenario, the vast majority of employees will end up better off," Fillmore said.

There are groups of state employees who are in opposition to this bill because of a loss of sick leave hours, but there are also a number of people who see this bill as an improvement to the current benefits package, as they shared during public comment time.

Fillmore said that the bill is meant to modernize state employee benefits, which haven't been changed in decades and make the state a more competitive employer. The senator was joined by John Barrand, director of the Utah Department of Human Resource Management, during his presentation.

Barrand shared that his division oversees all employees under the executive branch. They have been surveying and talking to a large number of employees as they have been looking at changing the benefits package.

"In this process, the majority of employees have let us know that they're interested in a modernization," Barrand said.

SB229 advanced through the committee with a vote of 7-3.

The debate around lost leave time

The most controversial portion of this bill is the combination of sick leave and annual leave. Instead of these two separate leaves, the employees will receive paid time off.

With the merger employees would lose two hours of sick leave per pay period, and this is what most people against the bill have concerns about. Fillmore said that while it may be a decrease in quantity this bill brings an improvement in quality.

Fillmore pointed out that sick leave is a lot harder to use than other types of leave and most employees do not use all of their sick leave and are never paid for it. The senator added that those two hours employees are losing will be replaced by the temporary disability plan.

He added that executive directors have the ability to create additional leave availability. Each agency also has a pool of sick leave that people can pull from.

"We would never exit an employee based on performance for having cancer. And that's the fear mongering that's currently happening. That's not the Utah way. That's not how we take care of our employees," Barrand said.

During the committee's public comment period, a number of people spoke for or against the bill and most of them focused on the change in leave.

Kory Holdaway from the Utah Public Employees Association spoke in opposition to the bill. He said that when the employees lose the two hours of leave per pay period that will amount to a loss of 52 hours a year.

"That's a significant number of hours that these employees would be losing as a result of this," Holdaway said.

He added that as his organization has spoken to different employees about this bill, they have received an "overwhelmingly negative" response because the employees are concerned about the loss of benefit. He added that there are portions of the bill that are seen as positive.

"We do understand this bill. The idea that we can't understand this bill is totally wrong," said Royce Webb, a public employee who spoke against the bill.

Ashley Carter, an attorney with the Utah State Board of Education, spoke in favor of SB229 saying it would encourage her to continue working for the state.

"Because having one flexible bucket of leave would result in more usable leave for me," she said.

What else would SB229 do?

SB229 would also include an increase to the 401(k) match for Tier 2 employees. Currently all employees are matched up to $26 per pay period. This increase would make it so these employees could be matched up to 2% on a 50% basis. The other employees stay at the $26 level.

"Nobody loses anything here," Fillmore said.

The accrual schedule for paid leave would also be changed making it so employees can accrue time off at a faster pace. The cap for compensable leave would also be increased.

Under this bill the state would be paying for a short-term disability plan and an accidental death and dismemberment plan for each employee for the first time. Currently, employees have to purchase their own through the private sector.

"We are offering a second security blanket, a deeper, more enriching benefit for them that elongates their ability to go through these catastrophic injuries or other issues," Barrand said.

Originally, the bill also changed the maternity leave for state employees, but the provision has been removed because another bill in the Legislature already does that.

HB329 would extend maternity leave for state employees from three weeks to 12 weeks.

Fillmore shared that the Division of Human Resources Management is working on a number of other provisions related to benefits outside of this bill.

While speaking about the bill, Barrand said these provisions will help with employee retention and make the state more competitive in the market.

"When you are designing compensation policy for employees, it is vital that you do so in a way that is attractive to the majority of the market, because that's who you're marketing yourself to as an employer, right?" Fillmore said.

Dan Schoenfield, a state employee, spoke in favor of the bill, saying that as a manager, he believes this will help with recruitment.

Related topics