"It’s a pretty unprecedented attack on public sector workers and workers in all industries," said Naomi Walker, director of state government relations at the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation.
Vermont public employees are not immune either, so maybe send some help our way?
This sentence is incorrect however:
"Earlier this month, a state judge struck a blow for open government when he ruled that there was no basis in the law for the state to charge fees for records requests."
Actually, the State can charge to produce copies of material but cannot charge simply to view material.
"As the VSEA said, allowing the state (or city, town, school district, etc.) to charge for record searches after two hours clearly creates a disincentive to seek a substantial amount of information."
At a press conference this afternoon, Gov. Shumlin and several legislative leaders announced a joint effort to make Vermont state government more open and transparent. Most of the steps articulated were positive, including a designated State entity to resolve PRR disputes and staff training on PRR requests. However, also included is a plan to place a two-hour time limit on the amount of time state employees can spend on individual PRR work. The State would pay for the two hours but nothing more. Whatever that additonal time amount is, it would be up to the Vermonter requesting the info to pay for it. VSEA opposes this piece of today’s announcement.
Question: How does the average Vermonter monitor the amount of time being spent on their specific PRR?
Legislation passed last year reads:
“The employee or group of employees making the suggestion shall then be entitled to a total monetary award equal to 25 percent of the savings realized as a direct result of the suggestion in the first year of its implementation, but the maximum total monetary award shall not exceed $25,000.00 under any circumstances. If the suggestion is simultaneously made by more than one employee, the award shall be divided equally among the employees who submitted the suggestion.”
Click Here To Get Form (second listing under "Employment" head"