"My name is Sue Herndon and I work at the hospital. I was born at that institution, and I still feel an affinity to it. The staff and health care professionals there are the most caring people in the world - they give wonderful patient care. They should be treated like royalty, but they're not.

The University of Virginia wants to become a charter institution, freeing them from certain state regulations. I keep hearing that they plan to "emulate the success at the health system."

I am here to tell you about how successful limiting state control, or "codified autonomy" has been for hospital staff.

We were told that codified autonomy was the promised land. More money, better benefits. We won't be locked in to the state's repressive standards, they said.
We'll be able to give bigger raises because we won't be locked into the state's grade and step system. Sound familiar?

Let me tell you what has happened at the hospital.

At the hospital, we still have remnants of the state personnel policies. That's the codified part - for you, that's the charter part. Three things keep us tied to the state system:

We do not have the right of collective bargaining.
We do not have the right to strike.
If we have a grievance, our only recourse is the state's grievance system.

What has changed?

Our entire personnel department and its policies.

All your time - annual, sick and holiday, is in one pile, called paid time off or PTO. If you get sick, take it out of your PTO. Vacation time - PTO. Thanksgiving, Labor day, 4th of July -- all out of your PTO. I had been here for 5 years at the time of the switch and was accruing 38 days of annual, sick and holiday time each year - not counting any extra days given by the governor. After the switch, I earned 33 days - period. People hired after July 2002 accrue 29 days - that's a 9 day difference.

And how about those raises? Yes, the salary caps are off - for the highest of the high. Since the institution of codified autonomy in 1996, the hospital has instated a whole new level of administration, layered on top of the old executive management. We have a new Chief Financial Officer, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Clinical Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Information Offices` These people have been hired with 6 figure salaries - the CEO makes substantially more than Casteen. And for the most part, the old administrators are still here.

As for the staff, well, we haven't had huge raises. As a matter of fact, some years we get no raises at all. Our raises are based on our annual performance evaluations. The best workers get the highest raises, as it should be. BUT - managers are limited as to the overall percentage they are able to raise salaries in their departments. Even if they want to give several people the highest evaluation, they can not, because of budget concerns. So some staff members do not get the raises they have earned.

Many of the personnel policies are open to interpretation by the supervisor. For example, we have something called an "occurrence." In some departments, you get an occurrence when you do not give 24 hours notice that you will miss work. So you wake up with a fever and a sore throat and you call in sick - you've got an occurrence. Your child gets sick and you have to go bring her home from the day care center - occurrence. I know of one woman who brought in a doctor's excuse and was still given an occurrence - it was on the wrong form. Seven occurrences in a year, and you can be fired. I know of one woman with a chronically ill child. She was torn between leaving the job and risking an occurrence, and getting her child to the doctor for potentially life saving treatment. No one should ever be forced to choose between her job and her child - but it happens at the hospital.

Basically, what is happening is this. We are state employees, with all the limitations of state employees, run by a Human Resource system which is based on a business model. Therefore we have all the limitations of state employees, with none of the protections. We have the absolute worst of both worlds.

So. What do you do about this? You fight it. You educate yourselves as to what is really going to happen to you. Write letters to the Board of Visitors and let them know what you think. Join the Staff Union for the University of Virginia and help us fight for your future.

Do NOT ALLOW THIS to happen to you. DO NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN." (Sue Herndon, October 1, 2004)