YSU Retirement incentives plan expands

The university has learned it can't offer a buyout to just one class of employees.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The cost of an Early Retirement Incentive Plan for Youngstown State University employees who contribute to the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System just went up.
The ERIP was negotiated as part of a new contract for the 400-member Association of Classified Employees at YSU, and the university had estimated that 131 ACE staff would be eligible.
The university will buy up to two years of service time for eligible employees, allowing them to retire early or at a higher pension rate.
The buyout cost estimate over a three-year period was $6.12 million, but that expense would be offset by savings over that same time period of $5.96 million, the university said.
However, OPERS has told the university that state law won't allow the ERIP to be offered to just ACE employees. It must be offered to all university employees who pay into the OPERS system and who meet the retirement criteria.
New plan approved
That expanded plan is what won approval from the YSU Board of Trustees on Tuesday.
However, ACE isn't happy with the final package and has challenged some of its terms, claiming the ERIP they negotiated was unilaterally changed by the university.
It could wind up as an unfair labor practice charge, said Christine Domhoff, ACE president.
The version approved by the trustees boosts the estimated number of eligible employees to 185, and that raises the cost estimate to $9.91 million over a three-year period, according to a statement released from the university.
The savings, resulting from replacing retiring workers with entry-level personnel and restructuring departments, won't keep pace with the cost.
The university estimates the three-year savings at $7.84 million with the larger group, leaving a funding shortfall of just over $2 million.
About half of that cost has already been met as the YSU Board of Trustees has earmarked $1 million in unencumbered fiscal year 2005 year-end revenue as a down payment on the ERIP.
Where the remaining $1 million will come from hasn't been determined yet, said YSU spokesman Walt Ulbricht.
The university had estimated a permanent base annual savings of $2.7 million after the three-year payout period under the original ERIP version that applied only to ACE.
The larger employee group raises that estimate to $3.6 million per year.
"Bottom line, it's a tremendous program," Ulbricht said, explaining that it gives YSU employees a great personal choice about their futures.
Contract negotiations
ACE officials said it was the university that first came up with an ERIP buyout, but a review of the documents in the ACE contract negotiations showed that ACE actually first proposed consideration of a buyout in May of this year.
Domhoff said ACE dropped the idea after costing out the program, deciding that it would be too expensive for the university in the long run, and focused instead on a cash incentive plan to encourage employees of retirement age to retire.
The university's initial contract proposal didn't include an ERIP, and the YSU statement said it agreed to an ERIP buyout after ACE agreed to salary step revisions that would result in a lower pay scale for new hires.
Domhoff said the version of the program approved by the trustees isn't what ACE agreed to and she verbally, and in writing, has challenged sections of the document dealing with such issues as a requirement of a six months' notice of intent to retire, a ban on program retirees ever being rehired by YSU and creation of a new grievance procedure for challenging any benefit under the program.
"In no way have I [as chief ACE negotiator] agreed to this," Domhoff said.
OPERS must review and approve the final version of the plan before it can be implemented.
Domhoff said she will consult with legal counsel about filing an unfair labor practice charge against the university if the document approved by the trustees is sent to OPERS for that review.
gwin@vindy.com