AFSCME has reached a signed agreement with the Department of Budget and Management over retro pay for DBM’s COVID-19 Response Pay. This differential was restarted on April 7th for both the $3.13 response pay and $5.13 quarantine pay for classifications as designated by the Department of Budget and Management- click here to review the list.
Retro pay will be paid in regular employees’ paychecks on May 26th and contractual employees on June 2nd. This will be a lump sum payment labeled “Retro Response Pay 2021” on employees’ pay stubs.
The retro payment amount will be calculated from the time response pay stopped in September 2020 until it restarted in April 2021. Employees working in quarantine facilities between September 2020-April 2021 will receive retro pay for hours worked when the quarantine designation was not in effect.
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Retro payments will be calculated based on the average number of hours an employee received response pay bi-weekly between March and September 2020. Please review your hours carefully when your pay stub becomes available for viewing, and do not hesitate to reach out if you are concerned. Retro pay for employees who sometimes worked in person sometimes worked at home will be based on the average number of hours an employee was getting of response pay bi-weekly between March and September 2020.
As a reminder, this retro payment does not impact our Emergency Pay Grievance. Since the beginning of the pandemic, AFSCME members have made it clear that DBM’s response pay was a violation of our contract language on emergency pay. In response, we filed the largest group grievance against the State of Maryland to enforce our contract and are in the final step of the grievance procedure at the Office of Administrative Hearings. We will continue to update as we get more information on the grievance.
If you believe your retro pay may have been incorrectly calculated, please gather any records you have of your own time or any directions given to you about your timesheet and coding for response pay before calling our Member Resource Center. Our Member Resource Center is open 9am-5pm on Monday-Friday and can be reached at [email protected] or 410.547.1515.
