r/OregonStateWorkers

So with the news of multiples ousting at DAS HR, and Sejal Hathi OHA Director resigning… what’s the tea?

While I am an Oregonian, I'm not an Oregon state employee, so this might get removed but I found this sub by searching Collective Health. I have been having the most maddening experience with them and am at the point where I have escalated to my employer and will file a complaint with ESBA if needed. I wanted to share information I found:

Collective Health serves as plan administrators for self funded healthcare plans. If you are having trouble with Collective Health, read your plan summary. The first step in an escalation process is to file a grievance. Interestingly, Collective Health does not have a grievance process against them. They only have an appeal process for them to pass through to your insurance company. I have found that Collective Health positions itself as an "advocate" when it suites them but then just kind of passes along information from the insurance rather than actually advocating for you, or at least that is my experience. So the first step is to file a grievance. I recommend using chat or another AI (I know I know) to help. It helped me list my demands, including things I hadn't thought of, like demanding that Collective Health preserve all communication.

If you are at the point where you file a grievance, reach out to your employer, Collective Health's customer. Because your plan is self funded, they are actually the ones ultimately responsible for administering it fairly. They have trusted Collective Health to do so, and if they aren't doing that, they will want to know because ultimately they will be held responsible.

Another issue that was raised here, that is also worth pointing out is Collective Health requiring you to relinquish class action rights just to access their system. In my case, I was not aware that I had to do that until after I had already elected my benefits with my employer. This is extremely sus.

Ultimately, the ESBA is the governing body who will hold Collective Health responsible. They are not a regular insurance company, they are governed differently, so insurance regulators are not the folks to complain to. I am not at this step yet, but I am very close.

Last night, I reported that the most senior HR director in Oregon state government was fired after refusing to resign.

Today, a spokesperson for DAS told me that the HR director, as well as another senior employee who resigned Friday, are both involved in a personnel investigation.

There’s obviously more to this story, curious to hear thoughts from anyone who has worked in HR or government.

I applied for a job at the Office of Administrative Hearings at the beginning of February. I did an interview in March and submitted my references at the beginning of May. I haven’t heard anything back from them since they confirmed they received my references on May 8th. I’ve been checking the Workday and it still says my application is under consideration. I’ve emailed the HR person twice to find out where I am in the process but haven’t heard anything back. Should I just give up and assume I didn’t get it? I know the current trend with employers seems to be just ghosting people but I thought the State would at least send me a stock rejection email or something, but I haven’t gotten anything at all, from anyone.

Does anyone have experience dealing with wage overpayments at a state agency?

I have been working for the state for several years now and found out this week that my salary was misclassified right from the start, resulting in an overpayment of wages by about $900 a month currently. I had no idea, of course. After taxes and deductions and everything else my take home pay always made sense to me in terms of my written offer, although admittedly I was not hired for my math skills.

I will start receiving my correct salary with my July paycheck and I am expected to repay over $10,000 of past overpayments. Does anyone have experience with the repayment process? I have had no contact yet with payroll staff with whom I will be discussing options at some point.

Also, the classification I was mistakenly assigned was not a union represented role, although the one I was hired into was supposed to be. So I have been denied years of union status. When I first started I was extremely interested in taking on an active role in the union and when I was told I was not a union eligible employee I was very disappointed. I’m so excited about being part of the union it almost makes up for the pay upset. The first thing I did after learning about the state’s mistake on Monday was to email my SEIU rep, but haven’t heard anything back yet. Does anyone have experience dealing with SEIU? I was really hoping I would get a quick response to my email and it feels a little concerning that so far it’s crickets.

I’m considering applying for a state job. What are some of the perks of working for the state of Oregon?

I’m a HR professional with just shy of 5 years of experience and a masters degree. I’m currently working as a generalist for a non-profit. I’ve been wanting to get a state job for a long time now and I just haven’t found my way in yet.

I’ve also been toying with the idea of shifting away from HR. I just don’t love the whole vibe of “HR protects the company not the employees”. My passion is in advocating for employees, not making shareholders richer by avoiding lawsuits.

I’ve seen a few postings for various BOLI jobs recently. I feel like that agency more closely matches my values in a job.

I definitely meet the education and experience requirements as my work in HR is a close parallel. But I’m not sure if HR is kind of “the enemy” and if it might make me an automatic reject.

Anyone ever made this transition before?