UUP Promotion, Reclassification and Salary Increase Requests

Definitions

A promotion is an increase in basic annual salary with a change in title and movement to a higher salary rank, resulting from a permanent, significant increase or change in duties and responsibilities, as a consequence of movement from one position to another of greater scope and complexity of function.

A reclassification is a change to another budget title (SL level could be higher, lower, or lateral) without a current increase in salary.

A salary increase can happen without an accompanying change in budget title but must be supported by documentation.  Sometimes, a salary increase with a change in campus title rather than budget title is appropriate.  Temporary salary increases may be in effect for interim duties and as such will include a date for the return to previous salary and duties.

Requests

The University has an established procedure for UUP professional employees to initiate a request for a promotion or salary increase during two windows, January and June. That process has also been used for department sponsored promotions and/or salary increases due to the absence of a specific departmental sponsored process. Effective December 2018, departments may no longer submit petitions on their employee’s behalf during these two windows without first following the procedure below. The employee initiated process and two windows remains unchanged.

Overview employee initiated process:

  1. Employee submits petition to immediate supervisor in either January or June through chain of command
  2. Employee is notified if petition is ultimately approved or denied
  3. Employee may appeal a denial at a level below the President

The following process will be utilized for the exploration of a proposed change in performance program which may result in a permanent and significant change in duties. The director/dean of the department (or equivalent) must prepare a draft revised performance program to be discussed with their division vice president or designee. Included with the revised performance program should be the specific additional change in duties that are being proposed, along with who is currently performing those duties or previously performed those duties, a current organization chart, proposed revised organizational chart along with budgetary funding. Additionally, any duties being proposed for removal must be included as well.

The Vice President or designee will consult with Human Resources regarding the request to ensure consistency and then ultimately make a decision if the change in performance program addition is operationally warranted and budgetarily feasible. Quite often there are larger divisional operational considerations and proposals that individual directors/deans may not yet be aware of. The Vice President may also look across the Division for additional resources to meet operational needs. This process will provide Vice Presidents with the ability to coordinate larger operational decisions in a more strategic and proactive manner.

If after consultation, the Vice President approves the director/deans request that the additional duties may be assigned, then the petition process should be initiated by the dean/director.

Overview departmental initiated process:

  1. Dean/Director discusses proposed change in performance program with Vice President or designee (Preliminary information to be provided to Vice President or designee with proposed amended performance program)
    • Briefly explain why additional duties are being proposed for this employee.
    • Who previously performed these duties?
    • Are these duties core to your mission?
    • Is this work legally mandated for the University?
    • Will any currently assigned duties be removed as these new duties are added?
    • Identify a budgetary plan related to this proposed transaction. Current and proposed organizational chart
  2. Vice President or designee consults with Human Resources for consistency
  3. If informally approved, the dean/director initiates the formal petition at the dean/director level

Forms

Professional Employee Promotion/Reclassification/Salary Increase Request (including temporary increase)

Internal Promotion Procedure for Professional

Statement of Purpose:

Management and the UUP bargaining unit at Binghamton University share the responsibility of supporting and retaining a strong, creative, and proactive workforce. The workforce of our University is the core element of future success and prosperity, and the parameters outlined in this document have been devised with the goal of acknowledging the value of the employees who devote their professional lives to Binghamton University. We believe that the concept of internal career development is an integral ingredient in employee morale and institutional success and we seek to provide existing employees with the opportunity of first consideration for eligible, vacant positions as they become available. We understand that building and maintaining an excellent workforce is in part achieved by providing equal opportunity to all persons in employment consideration and recognize the need to balance affirmative action commitments with the concept of internal promotion.

The promotional opportunities in this plan will be consistent with employee development, qualification and job performance. Guidance and criteria for professional employee consideration is provided by the Policies of the Board of Trustees , Article XII, Title C., consistent with Affirmative Action requirements to provide upward mobility for women, minorities, veterans, persons with disabilities and regardless of sexual orientation.

Eligibility

Professional employees in the unit represented by UUP with at least one (1) year of service on the basis of a term, permanent or temporary appointment (in the case of temporary, those who have come to their position as a result of an approved affirmative action process) are eligible to apply for promotional opportunities under this plan. "Professional employee" is defined by the Policies of the Board of Trustees , Article II, section 1 (1).

Employees represented by CSEA, Council 82, PEF, the Research Foundation and those designated as management/confidential classified, with a minimum of one year of service are also eligible to apply for consideration but will only be considered after eligible UUP professional employees have been considered.

Positions Covered in This Plan

All UUP professional vacancies, including entry level positions with the exception of the titles of college physician, director of physical education and research associate will be covered by this agreement.

Procedure

  1. When the requirements of Article 35, Retrenchment of the Agreement between the State of New York and the United University Professions, Inc. have been met and a professional vacancy has not been filled by a retrenched employee and has been cleared by the Affirmative Action Office, the Office of Human Resources will post the position on the Binghamton University website for at least ten working days.  At the discretion of the search committee chair, external advertising may be done simultaneously with internal posting; however, internal applications must be viewed before external applicants are considered. The posting will include budget title, campus title, rank, salary level, qualifications and the deadline for receipt of applications.
  2. At the conclusion of the internal posting period, all applications will be reviewed by the Office of Human Resources to determine if they meet the criteria for internal consideration. If the criteria is met, they will be divided into "tiers" for appropriate consideration based on bargaining unit. Eligible UUP professional employees will be considered first and others considered in a second tier.  Eligible candidates will be notified of their status by Human Resources, and the search committee will review their applications.  One of three decisions will be rendered to all applicants; namely: (1) the person meets qualifications and will be interviewed  (2) the person does not meet qualifcations and will not be interviewed (3) the person is qualified but will be included as part of the larger candidate pool and considered further. The department conducting the search will communicate with eligible candidates regarding their status directly.
  3. If the internal process has yielded no successful candidates for the position, external applicants will be interviewed as per Affirmative Action guidelines.