Overtime costs decline at the UI, ISU, UNI

Overtime and comp time paid to employees at Iowa's three regent universities and two special schools declined from 2009 to 2010.

State budget cuts that forced the institutions to tighten belts, trim jobs and reduce some maintenance services played a role in the decrease, officials said.

“Clearly, people had to be very judicious in the use of overtime in controlling expenses,” Kevin Ward, University of Iowa assistant vice president for human resources, said.

The UI paid about $4.2 million in overtime in fiscal year 2010, which ended June 30. That's compared to the nearly $5.7 million the UI paid in overtime in fiscal 2009. Comp time taken - when an employee gets time off for extra hours worked rather than overtime payment - was valued at about $1.5 million in 2010, compared to $1.6 million the year before.

The UI paid much more in overtime in 2009 and 2010 than did Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. In fiscal 2010, ISU paid $886,427 and UNI paid $250,852, decreases of 12 percent and 18 percent, respectively, from 2009. Overtime is paid to merit staff and employees in unions, such as secretaries, nurses, facilities workers and police officers.

Most of the overtime costs listed under the UI total come from University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics - about 70 to 75 percent of overtime paid in each of the past two years, Ward said.

“In large part, that's because of the variability in 24-7 staffing and a host of issues related to running a hospital,” he said.

UI Spokesman Tom Moore said overtime at UI Hospitals and Clinics isn't taxpayer money, since the hospital gets less than 7 percent of its budget from state dollars, he said.

Martha Hunzinger, a UI Hospitals and Clinic psychiatric nursing assistant, topped the UI's payment list in 2009 and 2010, earning more than $54,000 in overtime in both years. Hunzinger did not return messages seeking comment. But Moore said the hospital has a process for scheduling overtime and first asks for volunteers to take extra shifts; if volunteers can't be found, there are union rules about who is scheduled for overtime.

Hospital leaders have worked in the past several years to reduce overtime costs and use more flexible staffing - where workers are distributed throughout the hospital where they are most needed, Moore said. But being shorthanded at the hospital is not like being shorthanded at the driver's license station, he said.

“Here, if we have an open shift, we have to fill it to take care of patients,” Moore said. “There has been a real focus, particularly on the health care side of the river, to reduce those costs. That focus has carried over to the rest of the university as well.”

The 2008 flood also likely impacted UI overtime numbers for fiscal 2009, which began July 1, 2008. Data on reimbursement to the UI from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for flood-related overtime costs wasn't available from UI officials Thursday.

“That fiscal year started in July 2008, and we really would have been in the thick of things in terms of recovery,” Ward said. “I think it's clear that was a factor.”

At ISU, it's clear the budget cuts played a role in the reduction of overtime in 2010, Warren Madden, vice president for business and finance said. ISU had fewer employees in 2010, and the university also reduced services in areas such as grounds maintenance and building cleaning, he said.

“We have made substantial reductions in levels of service, part of our budget reductions,” he said. “That results in less overtime.”

In units that report to him, Madden sometimes looks at the overtime numbers to see if it would be more cost effective to hire another person, though then benefits costs must be considered, he said.