MORE ON 12 MONTH EMPLOYEE PAYROLL RECONCILIATION

Dear Members,

HFT continues to work on the issue of employees being billed for
payments in advance.  So far, HISD agreed to:

1. Allow employees to pay back advanced days with leave or vacation
days instead of pay deductions.

2.  Agreed to forgive half of advanced days for employees WHO WERE 12
MONTH EMPLOYEES ON AUGUST 10, 2012.

3.  Agreed to work with employees who were 12 month employees as of
August 10, 2012, and who were billed and already repaid the full
amount.  HISD payroll will meet with the employee (employee needs to
call and make appointment) to reconcile, go back and apply leave days
and refund any money overpaid by the employee as a result of the
advance pay billing.

However, HFT thinks the intention of the Board was that all employees
who were active employees as of August 10, and being billed for the
advance pay, would have half of those days forgiven.  We do not see
why a 12 month employee who had their job changed to 10 month in
August should be penalized by having to pay the full amount when 12
month employees get half forgiven.  We will continue to press for
this.

Unfortunately, anyone who left HISD over the summer and had the full
amount deducted from their last check will not be getting a refund.
This had been HISD's policy and practice for years.  Just as teachers
who resign before HISD announces a buy out are not able to get the buy
out.

Any HISD employee who is being billed should make an appointment with
HISD payroll and have HISD explain to them the specifics of THEIR
amount due, the amount of vacation and leave they have, and how they
wish to resolve it.  If any current employee already paid, they need
to make an appointment to reconcile the days owed and any leave or
vacation they have and decide if they wish to use days and get a
refund of the cash or payroll deduction they already paid.

HFT Wins Pay For New Teachers!

When HFT went to the New Teacher Training in August and discovered that the newly hired HISD teachers were not being paid for 3-4 full days of training, we filed a grievance on their behalf. 

HFT WAS THE ONLY ORGANIZATION THAT PROTESTED HISD NOT PAYING THE NEW TEACHERS FOR THE AUGUST TRAINING.

After several delays, and with the hearing officer pressing to schedule the case, on Tuesday, HISD's attorney asked for "48 hours to find a settlement"

Today, we are happy to announce, HISD sent a letter to every new teacher telling them that they will paid $125.00 for every day that they signed in for the training!  SEE THAT LETTER BELOW.

ALL HFT MEMBERS CAN TELL ALL NEW TEACHERS IN HISD, WHETHER THEY ARE HFT MEMBERS OR NOT, "YOU'RE WELCOME", AND "THIS IS WHY WE HAVE A UNION!!"

HFT Reduces 12 month Employee Debt by Half

Good news!

Over the last couple of weeks HFT has been been in talks with the administration over the plan to make 12 month employees pay back up to 20 days of pay that had been advanced to them when they were hire. Last night the administration recommended and the school board approved a plan that will reduce the amount of time that must be repaid in half. The following is from the board agrnda item:

"Specifically, the new recommendation proposes that one-half of the days advanced to each

employee be forgiven. Employees affected owe from a minimum of 9 days to a maximum of 20 days. This proposal will reduce the span of days to be reimbursed by the employees to a minimum of 4 ½ days to a maximum of 10 days."

"Based on board policy, each employee is advanced a minimum of 22 combined leave and vacation days as of September 1 of each year. Under the revised proposal employees will continue to have a choice of whether to use vacation/leave days or payroll deduction to satisfy the days owed to the district. Further, the revised proposal recommends that the timeframe for employees to utilize payroll deduction to reimburse the district for days advanced, should be increased by one year from the original proposal. The recommended proposal to reimburse the district for days advanced is now as follows:

• Employees will be forgiven one-half of the days owed
• Employees may reimburse the district using vacation days, local and/or state leave days from 2011–2012, 2012–2013, and 2013–2014
• Employees may reimburse the district through payroll deduction to be spread
  over 2012–2013, 2013–2014, and 2014–2015."

HFT is aware that this new proposal still places a burden on the 12 month employee but it is a smaller burden than first proposed and it may be settled over a three year period instead of two years. It may also be settled with days that are advanced over those three years (including this year) so it does not have to come out of current accumulated leave.