UIUC Payroll Mishandling of GEO Dues Deductions
The Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) is a member-run union that operates primarily on member dues. GEO members have elected to have these dues withheld from their paychecks as employees of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC). Dues are deducted through the University Payroll system. In April 2019, GEO members voted to increase Research Assistant and Pre-professional Graduate Assistant dues from $3 to $8 per month. Following that vote, the GEO informed Campus Human Resources and Payroll of the changes to be made to deduction amounts. However, since July 2019, UIUC Payroll has either overcharged our members or failed to perform mutually agreed-upon reimbursement, for every subsequent month since July.
For the last four months, GEO’s team of volunteers has engaged in numerous meetings, phone calls, and email exchanges with UIUC administration to rectify these errors. When RA dues were reverted back to $3 per month in August without consent from the Union, the GEO filed a grievance and Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) against the University. The ULP was filed on August 23rd of this year, nearly two months ago. In response to our grievance and ULP, the University administration agreed to corrected dues deductions for our members in September. Yet this pattern of promising to rectify the mistake made by UIUC payroll and not adhering to that promise has continued to reoccur. Two weeks ago it became clear that GEO members once again have not been reimbursed for the various incorrect charges in their October paychecks. Despite months of GEO pursuing appropriate actions through appropriate channels, UIUC administration has not taken responsibility for their errors, thus continuing to negatively affect the financial well-being of our members.
Many of our members earn poverty wages. The federal poverty line for an individual is $12,490 per year. 17.9% of Teaching and Graduate Assistants are at the federal poverty line. According to the MIT living wage calculator, the living wage in Champaign-Urbana is $24,544, but 73.7% of Teaching Assistants and Graduate Assistants make less than that. Many of our international members are wholly dependent on their wages from the University. In addition, most members are required to pay upwards of $500 in student and health insurance fees in September in order to keep their jobs. On top of all this, our members have been volunteering their time and labor to work with Campus Human Resources on correcting these dues deduction errors. Their commitment to putting rightfully earned wages back into member’s wallets has meant taking on this unnecessarily convoluted issue in addition to their own work assignments and teaching efforts.
Yet, this situation can only be rectified by University Payroll: the GEO has no power over the deduction of union dues from graduate employees’ paychecks from the University. It would be extremely taxing and near impossible for the GEO to attempt instituting their own reimbursement system for hundreds of members that have been affected by the administration’s errors. University Payroll has the resources to correct its system and reimburse its employees for the past four months of incorrect withholdings. On October 16 we again met with Campus Human Resources, where they presented a plan to reimburse our members the dues they were overcharged, but over the past four months they failed to follow through and have changed their course of action without informing us.
The GEO has now filed a ULP against the university and will not withdraw this until our members are correctly and appropriately reimbursed for these overcharges. The University has an obligation to their employees to issue their rightful wages and must follow through on that responsibility to their employees. We urge Campus Human Resources and University Payroll to work with us and do right by their graduate employees.
The Graduate Employees’ Organization, AFT/IFT Local 6300, AFL-CIO, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, represents approximately 2,700 Teaching and Graduate Assistants on the UIUC Campus. In November 2009 and in February 2018, over 1,000 GEO members and allies participated in a strike to secure a fair contract and more accessible UIUC campus. With an active presence in the community, the GEO continues to work for high-quality and accessible public education in Illinois.
For more information, please contact GEO Media Liaison Cassidy Wagner at commcomm@uigeo.org.
GEO website: www.uiucgeo.org
Twitter: @geo_uiuc
Facebook: @uigeo @geosolcomm
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