The Future of UC Retirement Benefits

Currently we are contributing about 2% of our salaries into the retirement plan, which became effective in June of 2010. The new vote states that in June of 2011 we wil be contributing 3.5%. Is the plan to bring out contribution up another 1.5% or another 3.5% in June of 2011.

During the onsite visits over the last year, and idea has been mentioned by panelists which they have called the Doctrine of Vesting. This appears to refer to the notion that benefits earned will not, or even cannot, be taken away. Problem is, this Doctrine is not able to be found anywhere in printed form, either as part of the formal basis for UCRS or even just as a concept explained. Could you please put this Doctrine of Vesting on the record?

Nancy, under the Regents plan, employee contributions will rise by 1.5 percent in July 2011. The 3.5 percent figure is the total.

Mr. Bostrom promised that the question about how rehired former employees would fit into the new system would be answered on this website. Please e-mail me when that answer is posted: I edit the newsletter for the UCLBL retirees organization, and this is a question of great interest to many of our members.

Where did the money from the dcp account go? Why are we not able to draw out the “pre-tax” amount left, as it is doing nothing but sitting there. Do you plan to divert that somewhere too? I think you need permission to divert funds payed in by employees.

It is getting more and more likely that the non-represented staff will unionize after this process. Unlike the the faculty and unionized staff, we have no direct voice in the process. CUCSA is a joke.

It seems apparent that the UC Regents believe that UC workers should be content to live just above the poverty level. As an IT professional, I could easily make twice what I make now at UC in the private sector. As an idealist, I knew that I would have to sacrifice by taking a job in public education, but I never expected that I would not even make enough at UC to live in the county where I work, and be forced to live paycheck to paycheck to satisfy my idealism. You should know that the promise of the UC pension plan is the ONLY thing that makes these sacrifices bearable and if you take that away, there is no reason to suffer those sacrifices, not even for idealism’s sake. So, keep it up, Regents! I’m sure there are many other professionals out there in the UC system who feel the same way I do and are now thinking seriously about taking our professional talents elsewhere, our idealism notwithstanding. You get what you pay for, Regents, and for many years now you have been getting way more than you paid for from the likes of me. I’m sick and tired of watching the escalating salaries at the administrative and executive level while I (and many others) have not seen a pay increase in my seven + years in the UC system. It hardly seems possible, but in those seven years I have watched you turn a world-class public institution into an also-ran, and there seems to be no end in sight to your hubris. Bring on the unions!

I have a question about the proposed grandfathering of current employees under current post-retirement health coverage rules. When calculating age+service>=50, will partial years be counted? In other words, does age 38.5 plus service of 11.5 equal 49 or 50 in terms of meeting the cutoff?

I am also an IT working for UC and making half of what private sector offers. I have only stayed because of benefits. Recently it seems that there have been waves of benefit cuts or cost increases like more contribution for UCRP, not to mention furlough. Instead of our pays rising with rising cost of living, our take home pay is shrinking evermore. Please regents, stop high level waste.

I do not have a problem with increases however when you do not recieve a pay increase or even a cost of living increase, raising everything else is ludicrous.