A new agreement between the Contra Costa Community College District and the Hay Group may be the cause of concern to some members of the Los Medanos College classified staff as new job descriptions are written and staff is reclassified.

The concern centers on the fact that staff members must first agree that new job descriptions accurately describe what they do, before they find out what the new salary ranges will be.

The Hay Group is a global counseling management firm that works to modify job classifications by updating them, making title changes for some positions or creating new job descriptions altogether.

Since the job classifications haven’t been updated in over 20 years, many of the job performance requirements are outdated. Some listings still require workers to know how to use a typewriter.

“This has been a three year program — some places take five,” said Local 1 union district president Mike West. “Classifications/Job Descriptions haven’t been updated since 1985. Revised job descriptions are currently being reviewed by Classified Professionals — those that perform the work to serve our students, programs and services and maintain a quality learning environment.”

All updated job classifications were sent out to classified staff members by email after careful evaluation by the Hay Group and the District. Staff members were to either accept the job classification given to them and send in a classification placement acknowledgement or complete a classification placement appeal if they feel their position has been classified incorrectly.

However, some staff members were put-off when salary ranges were not mentioned with their reclassified job descriptions and that they would not be settled until after all job classification placements have been turned in and finalized.

“They want us to sign and agree to paperwork without seeing salary,” said LMC instructional assistant Eric Sanchez, “Some of us have been a little wary about signing it.”

Staff members are required to accept job classifications without first seeing what that job classification salary will be. For those who are having their job classification title altered, it may become an even bigger issue.

“Lets just say — and they don’t have this for my position — but let’s just say that they had a senior instructional position and that was my current role. They might have [removed that position and] demoted me to a lower instructional position. The position you were hired for may no longer be available,” said Sanchez, “So that’s some of the difficulty with the study because it affects certain people in different ways.”

Those who may have their job classifications altered to a position lower than their original position will not be guaranteed a salary matching their current one.

The district hopes to see the implementation of all new job descriptions and salaries by the beginning of July 2016.