2019 Homecare / Personal Support Worker Bargaining Survey: Part 2 -- Improving Payroll Systems


Negotiations for our next union contract start in March 2019, and caregivers like you will sit down with representatives from the State of Oregon to bargain our next contract. We need to know what changes you'd like to see.

We know there are many important issues to tackle, so we are launching a three part survey.
  • November: Wages, Benefits & Retirement 
  • December: Improving payroll systems 
  • January: Training, Registry & other important issues
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While wages are an important priority for workers, so is getting paid on time. While we made some gains in our last contract, like requiring the state to pay our late fees/overdraft when we’re paid late, we must continue to fight for improvements to ensure workers get paid on time, every time.














For PSWs only

During our last round of bargaining we considered moving from pay periods that are the 1st-15th/16th-end of the week to a 14 day pay period. We ended up maintaining the current pay cycles after surveying PSWs on what they preferred. But we continue to hear that people want more consistent pay days so we want to revisit hearing from PSWs on this issue.

We know that anything that changes how we are paid should only be done after careful consideration—and that recent transitions, like the change to PPL, have been very stressful for many of us. As we are narrowing the issues left at the bargaining table, we wanted to get feedback one more time about this proposed change and more clearly get a sense of whether or not PSWs are interested in this change.

Please read the below pros and cons of each pay cycle and then answer then let us know what you think:

Current 1st-15th/16-end of month cycle:

Pros:
  • Two pay periods fit into an exact month, which makes reconciling the Consumer’s monthly allotment of hours easier.
  • Avoids another system change
  • Workers could continue to bill once a month vs twice a month if preferred
Cons:
  • Would maintain current payroll schedule, where the dates paychecks are cut varies month to month and is impacted by weekends. For instance, if the pay period ends on a Thursday, timesheets aren’t due until close of business the next Tuesday. After that, the State needs eight business days to process (because of local office process, ODDS approval and PPL processes). So paychecks aren’t cut until 15 calendar days after the pay period ends.
  • Confusion around overtime will continue, since the work week (Sunday-Saturday) will not match the pay period.

Moving to a 14 day/2 week pay cycle

Pros:
  • Would allow for a consistent schedule for when paychecks are cut. For instance the pay period would always end on a Saturday. Timesheets would be due by close of business Wednesday and we’d push for a consistent every-other-week pay processing date. For workers eligible for overtime, it would align your work week with your pay period. This would speed up how quickly workers would receive their overtime pay and make it easier to understand which weeks of overtime pay you are receiving. Currently, when a pay period ends mid-week, it can be very confusing because workers don’t receive their overtime payment for the first part of that week until a month later. Workers could choose to bill once every four weeks, instead of once every two weeks if they wanted to.
Cons:
  • Consumers’ hours are allotted on a monthly basis. It could be confusing for both workers and Consumers to have hours allotted on a monthly basis, but the pay cycle running every 14 days.
  • Requires workers and Consumers to go through another system change, which can be stressful.

Private home care

Private home care providers do the same work as Consumer-Employed Providers, but are paid less and don't have any of the protections of being united in a union. Having a large group of providers doing the same work we do but for lower pay weakens our negotiating power — the State points to the standards in private agencies when we negotiate our contract. The first step in an organizing campaign is mapping our relationships to the industry.


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