The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) has put together a helpful flier with frequently asked questions for employees of educational institutions who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. A lesson on layoffs for school employees will help those who lose their jobs understand what they need to do to access unemployment compensation benefits, when they can access them, and direct them to the job search tools TWC offers. HR Services has included a link to this flier on our Cost Cutting Web page.
A new Web site 
developed by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Work in Texas is up and running to entice people to the teaching profession, explain the state’s certification requirements, attract teachers from other states, and allow teachers to search for job openings across the state.
Work in Texas, the state’s official labor exchange system, is part of the Texas Workforce Commission. It is free and available to employers and prospective employees at all times. It has more than 140,000 active employer accounts, making it a potentially vital tool for displaced teachers.
TEA plans to host two webinars, one in late April and one in May, to walk Texas school districts through Work in Texas registration and explain how to post open positions. TEA and the Texas Association of School Personnel Administrators will send districts webinar registration information.
Just as districts face unprecedented budget cuts and little hope for giving pay raises, the private sector seems to be recovering. According to the 2011 Culpepper Salary Increase Budget Update Survey, base pay increases and promotional salary increases will be higher this year, and significantly fewer organizations plan to freeze or cut pay.
Base salary increases in the United States are expected to rise by half a percent to 2.9 percent in 2011. Globally, budgeted salary increases vary by company size and industry. Small companies plan on giving bigger pay increases than large companies. Companies with 100 or fewer employees project average pay increases of 3.2 percent, representing an increase of 0.7 percent from last year. Companies with at least 10,000 employees project 2.9 percent average pay increases (only 0.4 percent higher than last year). Only 5 percent of survey respondents plan to freeze pay in 2011. Eight hundred and nine organizations from 85 countries participated in the survey.
The Hay Group’s Salary Budgets Survey found similar trends, projecting a median base salary increase of 2.8 percent in 2011. Towers Watson’s survey of large and midsize U.S. companies projects slightly higher average pay increases (3.0 percent this year).
—“Salary Increase Budgets Improve in 2011,” by Culpepper and Associates, March 2010.
—“Largest Merit Increases Since Start of Financial Crisis on Tap,” by Stephen Miller, Society for Human Resource Management Web site, February 25, 2011.
There’s been no let up in wage and hour class actions and employers should be alert to the possibility of more in the future. The wave started with misclassifications and has now spread to meal and rest breaks, according to Michael Kun, an attorney with Epstein, Becker & Green in Los Angeles, speaking at the firm’s January law conference.
The reason more class actions could be on the horizon is the Department of Labor’s We Can Help Campaign . The campaign has included public service announcements that encourage workers to notify the department of violations. The department’s Bridge to Justice Program is another reason, with the DOL striking a deal with the American Bar Association to refer claimants to plaintiff’s lawyers when it decides not to investigate a claim.
There was a 10 percent increase in the number of wage and hour collective and class actions in the courts in 2010 from 2009. Settlements have also been higher, creating an additional incentive for litigation. And while misclassification continues to be the source of much litigation, some novel off-the-clock claims are sprouting up, including some focusing on the practice of equipping nonexempts with smart phones.
—“Wage and Hour Litigation Continues to Snowball,” by Allen Smith, Society for Human Resource Management Web site, Jan. 28, 2011.
Last month, we reported that the Texas Legislature did not include funds for Teach for America (TFA) in preliminary state education budgets. Dozens of education programs that receive federal funds are also in jeopardy as the U.S. Congress continues its budget wrangling.
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), TFA, the National Writing Project, and Reading is Fundamental are a few of many programs for which funding has been proposed for elimination in fiscal year 2011.
The National Board says its operations won’t be adversely affected in 2011 because monies for this year were obligated in 2010. NBPTS wants to assure candidates for national board certification in the 2011-12 cycle that funds are available. NBPTS will work with the U.S. Department of Education and Congress to identify funding sources for applicants in calendar year 2012.
