State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) officials say they’ve decided to eliminate assigned company cars entirely. The initial plan (phase one) was to eliminate some 1,000 of the 1,800 automobiles in its fleet. The quasi-governmental carrier began notifying affected managers and frontline workers about the second phase of its fleet management program early this year.
The move will cut the fleet to just 700 cars statewide. It will remove an additional 500 to 600 vehicles. Each employee assigned a company car also has a gas card for fueling the vehicle.
“…we have decided that we ultimately want to eliminate all State Fund vehicles.”
—Jennifer Vargen, SCIF
SCIF announced that it would start cutting back on company cars last year, much to its employees’ chagrin. The cars are being pulled principally from SCIF employees who have them as a perk, according to the organization, and who do not use them for work.
“As we have worked to implement a new fleet policy for State Fund, we have decided that we ultimately want to eliminate all State Fund vehicles,” SCIF spokeswoman Jennifer Vargen tells Workers’ Comp Executive. “We have not established a timeframe yet for eliminating cars, but we are taking steps this year to further reduce the number of assigned vehicles.”
After June 30, 2011, the current plan is to assign cars only to employees who spend all of their time in the field. “Positions operating in a hoteling-type arrangement, where an employee does not have an assigned cubicle or office because their work is primarily in the field, will continue to be eligible for an assigned vehicle for now. The bulk of these positions are in Loss Control and Payroll Audit. All other vehicles currently assigned to employees who do not meet this criteria (approximately 1,200 vehicles), will be required to be turned in by June 30, 2011,” she adds.
SCIF announced the initial overhaul of its company car policy less than a year ago (see State Fund Opts… and SEIU Challenges… for past coverage of the car policy). At the time, it announced that 80% of the miles put on a company car would have to be for official company business, otherwise the employee would not be entitled to a car. But officials say it became apparent that even with this restriction, the policy wouldn’t eliminate enough cars to meet program goals.
Enter phase two.
“I could sit here and say I think we’re going to have some issues with it, but I really don’t want to say that until I see how it’s actually going to affect our members.”
—Pat Whalen, California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers
“We will maintain a reduced pool of vehicles for business needs and will continue to reimburse employees for business use of a personal vehicle,” says Vargen, noting that SCIF still is assessing how to distribute remaining pool cars to each location. To date, SCIF workers have surrendered about 400 cars. Under the original plan, senior personnel had to turn in their cars by December 31, but others could hold on to them until June 30, 2011, before turning in the vehicles if they no longer qualified.
The latest iteration of the fleet management plan, like the original, is expected to encounter organized labor’s opposition, but they are waiting on official notification before acting.
“We’ve heard the rumors and we’ve seen some of the emails, but we haven’t been given official notice from State Fund that gives all the details of the policies. I could sit here and say I think we’re going to have some issues with it, but I really don’t want to say that until I see how it’s actually going to affect our members,” attorney Pat Whalen tells Workers’ Comp Executive.
Whalen represents California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers (CASE), which lodged a complaint with SCIF against the initial fleet management program.
“Until we get the actual formal notice, which we understand will be forthcoming shortly, we’ll analyze it at that time and figure out our response, but it’s hard to say anything very specific about the policy until we understand all the details and how it affects our folks,” Whalen says.
Service Employees International Union 1000 (SEIU) also opposed the original changes to the program. It’s more than likely that the changes will not be welcome ones. Stay tuned.
(Filed by Brad Cain in San Francisco)