Boston Globe Gets Early Retirement Details Before Harvard Employees

In a letter sent Monday, February 13 (see below), Marilynn Haussman introduced the early retirement packages and said "details will be available on Wednesday."  Today, Tuesday, February 14, the Boston Globe published an article (also below) that has details already.  Why this discrepancy?  Why does the media learn about this before those workers who are affected?

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Dear Colleagues,

I write today to let you know that beginning on Wednesday, February 15, Harvard will offer a Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program (VERIP) for eligible staff members in the Harvard University libraries (Harvard Library).  Generally, library staff members who are age 55 and over, have 10 or more years of participation service, and are participants in a Defined Benefit or the Defined Contribution Retirement Plan are eligible for this program.  Local Human Resources offices will distribute personalized information packets to eligible staff members beginning on Wednesday.  Eligible staff members will have 46 days to consider this offer.  During this time, a range of support services will be provided to help each person decide whether retiring makes sense.

The Library leadership has been working since 2009, beginning with the Library Task Force and then the Library Implementation Working Group, to create a strategy and structure to support the future of Harvard’s libraries given the profound changes occurring in research libraries and scholarship in the digital age.  At every step of the way, we have been aware of the needs of our staff whose work supports the University’s mission every day.  We are sensitive to the effect of these decisions on those who steward one of the most important collections in the world, support our faculty, researchers, and students, and who rely on the University for their livelihoods. 

With these thoughts in mind, the 2012 VERIP is designed to be a totally voluntary option that will offer choice and financial support to qualifying employees who may wish to retire.  Eligible staff members will receive individualized retirement benefit statements, and will be assisted in their decision-making through group information sessions and individualized retirement counseling.  Full details will be available on HARVie (http://harvie.harvard.edu) beginning on Wednesday.

We are grateful for the service, dedication, and contributions of our library staff, and wish those who will retire all good things in the next chapter of their lives.  

Sincerely,

Marilyn Hausammann
Vice President for Human Resources

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Harvard to offer voluntary buyouts to 275 as part of push to modernize library

E-mail| Print | Comments (22) 02/13/2012 4:36 PM

By Mary Carmichael, Globe Staff

Some 275 Harvard University employees will be offered voluntary buyouts in the school’s first concrete move toward modernizing its decentralized library system, university officials said today.
Workers there have worried about involuntary layoffs, which they were told to expect during a contentious set of internal meetings in January that led to protests – most recently, the “occupation” of a library café on Sunday by students and labor activists.

But the packages offered today are “totally voluntary,” said a letter from Marilyn Hausammann, the university’s vice president for human resources.

The targeted employees are largely 55 and over, with 10 or more years’ experience at Harvard. The buyouts will be offered starting Wednesday, and employees are due to make their decisions by April 2. The packages will offer a payment equal to six month’s pay plus two weeks of pay for each year of service in excess of 10 years, up to the equivalent of one year’s base pay.

On Friday, Harvard announced a sweeping overhaul of its library system, including the consolidation of services and the shuffling of many of its 900-plus employees. The college said the changes were necessary to bring the system, the world’s largest academic collection, up to speed in the digital era.
“The new Harvard Library improves a fragmented system by promoting university-wide collaboration,’’ library officials said in a statement today. “It will enable Harvard to invest in innovation and collections, make decisions strategically, reduce duplication of effort and leverage the University’s buying power.

“As Harvard works to respond to the evolving expectations of the 21st century researcher, university leaders have been acutely aware of the needs of Library staff who support the University’s mission every day,’’ it continued. “With this in mind, the University is implementing a generous, voluntary early retirement program that will both offer incentives to qualifying employees who wish to retire and help the Library meet the needs of its new organization.’’


Mary Carm ichael can be reached at mary.carmichael@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @mary_carmichael.

Layoffs Step 1: offer early retirement packages

University to Offer Some Librarians Early Retirement

By Hana N. Rouse, Samuel Y. Weinstock, and Justin C. Worland , CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Published: Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The University will offer a Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program to library employees 55 years and older with 10 years of service under their belts, according to a University spokesperson.
Those who choose to accept the offer will receive six months’ pay, plus two additional weeks’ pay for every year of employment beyond 10 years. An employee cannot receive more than one year’s worth of salary under the package.

Approximately 275 employees are eligible for the plan. There are 930 full-time employees within the University library system.

Once they receive the details of their personal plan, workers will have 46 calendar days to decide whether or not to accept it.

Workers were informed of the program via email early afternoon Monday.

The plan is part of an ongoing restructuring of the University library system, which seeks to unify Harvard’s 73 currently independent libraries.

Harvard University Library Executive Director Helen Shenton had previously said at a town hall meeting with library employees that “the Library workforce will be smaller than it is now.”

In an email to the Crimson, a university spokesperson said that with improvement to the library system in mind, “the University is implementing a generous, voluntary early retirement program that will both offer incentives to qualifying employees who wish to retire and help the library meet the needs of its new organization.”

Bill Jaeger, director of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, said the offer was just another ambiguous message from the administration in a process that it has not handled well.
“It’s one more step that seems premature and that is poorly considered and not broadly enough consulted about,” Jaeger said. “There’s a record-breaking level of turmoil and anxiety among the staff. This just adds to the confusion.”

Jaeger said that this announcement did nothing to address the fact that, according to HUCTW members, the library is understaffed as it is.

“At this point, the case hasn’t been made for staff reductions,” Jaeger said. He added that if the library does not have a solid plan going forward, this program could cause it to lose money.
He also said that the possibility of a Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program was never mentioned in discussions between the union and the library.

“It’s really hard for the library staff to know what to make of the early retirement offer,” Jaeger said. “The big question that crowds out all the others is, ‘Why?’”

Karen L. O’Brien, a library assistant who noted that she was too young to take the offer, said that she thought that the announcement mirrored the steps the library took in the past when it sought staff reductions.

O’Brien said she thought that more employees were likely to accept the early retirement program if they had been previously scared by the threat of layoffs.

Since Shenton’s announcement, some library employees have taken to the streets to protest the possibility of layoffs, picketing outside of a meeting for library staff members and staging multiple public demonstrations.

Sunday night, members of Occupy Harvard took over Lamont Library Café, pledging to stay in the café until 10 p.m. on Friday in order to protest library staff reductions.

Andrew J. Pope, a doctoral student in history and Occupy Harvard supporter, said that the early retirement program leaves library employees with few options.

“If they don’t take the offer and are laid off, the family will be in a dire financial situation,” Pope said,

Rudi E. Batzell, another doctoral student in history who also supports Occupy, echoed Pope’s concerns.

“[The Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program] forces [workers] to make an economic decision without any sense of what their alternatives are,” Batzell said.

Sandra Y. L. Korn ’14, a Crimson associate editorial executive and a member of the Student Labor Action Movement, was skeptical about the early retirement program’s potential effectiveness.
“I think it’s stupid,” Korn said. “Harvard can’t completely revamp its library system in the next 46 days.”

The University has said it will provide more information on staff reductions over the coming weeks.

—Jane Seo contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Staff writer Hana N. Rouse can be reached at hrouse@college.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Samuel Y. Weinstock can be reached at sweinstock@college.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Justin C. Worland can be reached at jworland@college.harvard.edu.

Dean Smith email 2/17/2009, "voluntary" early retirement

Dear FAS Faculty and Staff,

Today detailed information about the University's Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program announced last week is being shared with
all those who are eligible to participate. I would like to take this opportunity to put the program in context for the Faculty of Arts and
Sciences and to express my gratitude to all those long-serving members of the staff who will now consider whether this program is right for them.

The precipitous decline in the national economy has hit every household, business and nonprofit, and Harvard has not been immune. Our plans
and emerging actions assume that the endowment will be down 30 percent this year and that we must begin to adjust to this new fiscal reality
immediately. As you know from the activities in your own departments over the last few months, we are attempting to reduce overall spending
while still investing in the vital academic programs that will ensure FAS's excellence in teaching and research for years to come. University
leadership, working closely with the Council of Deans, has taken similar actions. The voluntary early retirement program is one such University
initiative that aims to help the Schools in their efforts to cut costs while minimizing impact on the workforce.

As we consider spending cuts in the FAS, we are acutely aware of the importance of our people: the faculty, staff, and students. Through the
efforts of our staff, the FAS is able to further cutting-edge research, support innovative pedagogy, and develop the unique learning environment
that defines who we are and enables us to make our contribution to the world, both through scholarship today and through training of tomorrow's
leaders. For staff's service, their dedication, their contributions to the many activities of the FAS, I am deeply grateful.

I am pleased that the University is in a position to offer an early retirement plan for those who are eligible and who may want to take
advantage of it. In addition to the benefits normally provided under Harvard's staff retirement programs, the package will include a lump-sum
retirement incentive, a monthly supplement to "bridge" early retirees to Social Security at age 62, and eligibility for retiree medical coverage.
Personalized information is being delivered to eligible employees in the Faculty of Arts & Sciences beginning today. Eligible staff
will have 45 days from the day of receipt of their packets to decide whether to opt in. Basic information about the program, including
a schedule of informational and financial counseling sessions and a list of contacts for questions or concerns, has been posted on HARVie
(http://harvie.harvard.edu). Though the University's program is for staff only, we are considering whether it might be appropriate also to
offer a retirement program for faculty.

With more than half of our $1 billion annual operating budget dedicated to compensation costs, it is clear that realigning FAS for the future
will depend on some changes to our current workforce. Let me assure you that we continue to explore every option available in order to limit
staff changes forced solely by our budget challenges. We hope that the level of participation in the voluntary early retirement program will
mitigate the need for further staff reductions. Such considerations will be made after the program has closed and results are assessed.

These are difficult times for everyone, and we understand that deciding whether to participate in this program will be a major decision for
many of our employees. Harvard is committed to providing our employees with the information and retirement counseling that they need to fully
consider the opportunity for early retirement provided by this program.

Sincerely,

Michael D. Smith