Members of ASEA/AFSCME Local 52 protest on Feb. 10, 2023, in front of the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Alaska’s largest public employee union filed suit against the state of Alaska on Tuesday, saying that state officials have illegally withheld the results of a statewide salary study.
In Tuesday’s lawsuit, filed in Anchorage Superior Court, attorneys representing the Alaska State Employees Association allege that the state is concealing results unfavorable to the administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy and ask for a court order mandating the release of the study.
The salary study, commissioned by the Alaska Legislature in 2023, was to have been completed by June 30, 2024, and would have informed state officials about whether public employees’ salaries are competitive.
For years, the state has struggled to fill vacant positions, causing unions and some legislators to speculate that salaries have failed to keep pace with inflation and competition from the private sector and other states.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration has yet to release the results of the study, and in response to public records requests by the Alaska Beacon, other news agencies and the union, has said that it has not received a final report.
According to the state, a final report is not available because it asked for more data from the independent contractor hired to perform the salary study.
ASEA’s attorneys allege that the state, through a contract amendment, changed the conditions of the study after receiving unfavorable results.
Traditionally, the state examines whether salaries fall within the 65th percentile — with 35% of salaries for a comparable private-sector job above what the state pays, and 65% of comparable salaries below what the state pays.
In Tuesday’s filing, ASEA claims that after learning that “the majority of state salaries are ‘misaligned’” to that standard, the state amended the study so that it would be based on the 50th percentile, below historic standards and an act likely to make state salaries appear more competitive.
That amendment is unconstitutional, the lawsuit claims, because it violates the Legislature’s $1 million appropriation for the salary study in 2023.
In addition to requesting a judge order the release of the salary study, the union is requesting an injunction that would require the state to follow the 65th percentile rule.
The case has been referred to Judge Ian Wheeles, who has not yet set a date for a subsequent hearing. The state of Alaska, represented by the Alaska Department of Law, has yet to make a formal response.
“The Department of Law has received a copy of the lawsuit regarding the draft salary study and is currently reviewing the claims to determine the most appropriate course of action,” said Patty Sullivan, a spokesperson for the department.
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