Rauner should fix steps NOW!

The Illinois Labor Relations Board is scheduled to meet tomorrow, July 10, to finalize an order issued in response to a state appellate court ruling that the Rauner Administration acted illegally in freezing state employee step increases in 2015.

Last fall the court ruled that the Labor Board had erred in dismissing the Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge that AFSCME filed at the time the steps were frozen and remanded the case back to the Board to order a remedy.

AFSCME is arguing that the Labor Board should order that employees immediately be placed on the appropriate step and paid the monies lost by the lack of step movement over the past three years.

At this meeting the Labor Board is expected to issue a written order affirming the finding that Rauner did in fact commit an Unfair Labor Practice and directing a Board Compliance Officer to fashion the appropriate remedy. However, the process doesn’t end there as the Compliance Officer has up to 75 days to submit his or her recommended remedy—and there will still be further Board proceedings at that point.

There is no reason for this further delay when the appellate court has clearly found that Rauner never should have frozen the steps in the first place. Bruce Rauner has wronged employees for more than three years—preventing the movement through the step plan that was one of the conditions on which they were hired. It’s time for this governor to stop trying to drive down the income of state employees—and start paying them what they are owed.

Bruce Rauner should act today to place every employee on the appropriate step.