Greetings All,

If you didn’t hear Governor Jim Justice’s State of the State address, he reiterated his call for a 5% raise for teachers, school personnel workers and state workers, plus an “inflato-cine” bonus. Here is the video and text of his speech.

As our second week of the Legislature nears an end, here are some bills that affect UE Local 170 members the most.

HB 4252, “To reduce copay cap on insulin and devices” Reduces maximum copay on prescription insulin from $100 to $35, and sets a maximum copay for devices at $100 — great news for our members who are dealing with diabetes. This has passed the House, and has advanced to the Senate and assigned to the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee.

HB 4365 “Relating to discontinuing operation of certain state long-term care facilities” Seeks to close 3 long-term care facilities: Lakin, Withrow, and John Manchin. Workers will be offered the opportunity to transfer to another position in state government if they qualify for such job, or take a year in severance pay and benefits. – Hopemont is not affected by the legislation at this time, but could be through amendment. Referred to the House Government Committee, then the Finance Committee.

HB 4310, “Specifying when a public employee’s spouse may be covered by PEIA” Would cause you to pay the full spouse premium, instead of “your share” plus the employer’s share of the spouse’s premium. So, where applicable, this could make the part you pay go up, or make it unfeasible to cover your spouse through PEIA. Referred to the House Finance Committee.

SB 230 “Relating generally to public employees grievance procedure” The bill requires grievance forms to be notarized, and opens up the possibility for the grievant to be held responsible for the state’s legal fees in certain cases. In Senate Judiciary Committee.

Other bills of note:

  • HB 3124, permitting collective bargaining for public employees. In House Government Organization Committee.
  • HB 3123, the “Family Leave Program” would be as good as any. That would allow four weeks of paid employee leave in a 12-month period for reasons including: birth of a child; adoption of a child; care of a child, parent, spouse, or dependent with a serious health condition. In House Workforce Development Committee.
  • SB 243, “Granting all public employees 10 percent per year permanent pay increase,” In Senate Government Organization.
  • HB 2117, “Providing certain employees of the Highways increases in annual pay,” House Finance.
  • HB 2142, “Establishing seniority rights for public employees,” House Workforce Development.
  • HB 3178, “Suspend state government pay if business is shut down due to a pandemic,” House Government Organization.
  • HB 3186, “Relating to PEIA inpatient rates,” House Banking and Insurance.
  • Several bills to improve pay and benefits for retirees. All in committee.

Full text and status of all introduced bills can be found by searching here:

Many other questions can be answered at wvlegislature.gov, but we may be able to help you more quickly.

Please … if you want to know how a bill stands or who your senator or delegate is, please contact us at [email protected] or (304) 347-4396.