Dispatch story on OAKS mischaracterizes OCSEA position

Oct. 23, 2008 - An article in the Columbus Dispatch this week wrongly indicated that OCSEA would somehow go along with the state contracting out portions of the Ohio Administrative Knowledge System (OAKS), work currently being performed by bargaining unit employees.

In fact, OCSEA is in substantial disagreement with the state on this issue. “We absolutely disagree with the decision to contract out this work. Our position has and will continue to be that OCSEA bargaining unit members are best suited and should be performing these duties,” said OCSEA Executive Director Andy Douglas.

“Additionally, the union has asked that any Request for Proposal going to an outside vendor have clear and specific language requiring the bidder to develop a process for transferring the knowledge away from the bidder back to state employees and with specific timelines,” said Douglas.

OCSEA received a letter from Department of Administrative Services Director Hugh Quill in early October indicating that the state had made a decision to contract out certain OAKS functions based on an assessment and analysis of the system.

Ironically, a formal assessment and report of OAKS lists some of the same problems OCSEA has been warning the state about since the inception of OAKS, namely, the problem of recruiting qualified Information Technology staff.

From the beginning of OAKS, OCSEA has said compensation would be an issue and that the state had to come up with not only a competitive wage package, but additional training in an effort to develop the talent necessary to run the system.

At the time, OCSEA had requested that the vendor, Accenture, provide the knowledge transfer required, something the company was not required to provide nor, ultimately, did it provide.

In fact, the company that performed the formal assessment and report of OAKS agreed with the union that knowledge transfer is problematic with contractors.

OCSEA and the state have been meeting for over a year on a related matter concerning the reclassification of all state IT classifications in an effort to better recruit and retain highly qualified IT employees for state employment.

However, the decision to contract OAKS duties was never discussed in conjunction with these meetings.

“Interestingly, the issue of OAKS contracting out or the insufficiency of the skill sets of OAKS employees was never brought up in conversations about the IT reclassification over the course of a year,” said OCSEA Operations Director Bruce Wyngaard.

OCSEA has in the past and is again offering to use its Union Education Trust resources to develop a career pathway to ensure competent employees are prepared if and when a vendor is required to transition duties to bargaining unit staff.

See Related

State to outsource accounting: Skill-intensive OAKS project needs outside help, study says - Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 22, 2008

Union Education Trust

IT Classification FAQ

Union Contract