March 17, 2005

The Daily Newsbulletin recently published a story about a change in Laboratory personnel policy, which I believe is long overdue; namely AM 202.28, which covers salaries of reassigned technical staff member managers. It deals with a very real problem. Laboratory policy to this point had two features; a big salary increment, e.g. $20,000 - 40,000, on assignment to a management position; and a block against adjusting the salaries of those reassigned from management positions. The reasons for this problem are historic, but this policy was never in agreement with the University of California policy in this area.

This change is long overdue. I discussed this issue with former Laboratory Director John Browne and former Human Resources (HR) Division Director Frances Menlove in 1992. While the change will help the future, I suggest that it needs to be applied retroactively. We can all point to ex-managers who are sitting in overhead slots because they are too expensive for science on projects. I believe it is time to revisit these slots using the new guidelines.

--Chris Mechels