Around seventy-five campus community members filled the Memorial Union’s Great Hall on Tuesday to discuss issues with proposed changes to the University of Wisconsin-Madison personnel plan.
One of the goals outlined in the plan is to improve university employee recruitment, but many attendees said they had concerns about how the plan might end up harming senior UW-Madison employees.
Linda Meinholz, a university accountant for over 18 years, criticized the university for creating “quick wins” for new employees under the new system.
According to Meinholz, the possibility of a new employee earning more than her under the new plan feels like “age discrimination in a blanket.”
Gary Mitchell, president of a local state employees union and current classified staff member, said his biggest concern was that the plan might prevent staff members from trying to get promotions or transfers because employees will no longer be assured of getting their job back, should they fail during the probationary period in a new position.
“This really speaks to the loyalty issue and loyalty from our point of view should be a two-way street,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said overall he saw a recurring theme of dissatisfaction with how the redesign project was carried out and how quickly it has been put together.
“I think people affected by these decisions are the ones who should do the voting and just on that alone [we should] go back to the drawing board and say let’s start as much of this over as we can and take as long as we need to to do it right,” Mitchell said.
