A contract between the University Professionals of Illinois and the administration was formally signed Friday with one major change to the November agreement.

The tentative agreement then included a 6 percent cap on salary increases of certain types designed to align with state pension legislation.

The legislation says any increase totaling more than 6 percent from the previous year’s salary will have to be paid by the university when calculating a faculty member’s pension plan.

The UPI tentative agreement had included a 6 percent cap on payable yearly earning increases. Any increase over the cap would have been deferred to the next year’s earnings to be paid with interest. This would prevent the university from being responsible for any amount earned over the cap when calculating pensions.

However, the State Universities Retirement System (SURS) said the university’s interpretation of the legislation was incorrect. SURS said pension plans would be calculated with the salary amount earned by a faculty member in one year and not by the amount paid in one year.

“We found that SURS interpretation said it didn’t make any difference,” said Bob Wayland, chief negotiator for the administration and director of employee and labor relations.

The change in interpretation means the provision in the UPI contract is no longer needed. Regardless of the deferment of earnings over 6 percent, the university would still be expected to pay for any increases over the cap when figured into a pension plan.

“There are some additional provisions to that 6 percent cap but they weren’t real clear when we settled,” Wayland said. “I think we’ve since learned more about it and I don’t think it’ll be that much expense to the university.”

According to the pension legislation, “Anything up to 6 percent is funded by the state of Illinois,” Wayland said. “We think the university has no choice than to pick up the additional liability in that pension plan.”

He said all deferred salaries would be paid to UPI members in February.

UPI President Charles Delman said he is happy to have the change in the contract.

“This is really good news for our members,” he said. “Salaries won’t be deferred. They’ll get their money when they’ve earned it.”

Delman said the 6 percent cap was a “pretty low threshold” that would have caused more than half of the UPI members to have their salaries deferred to the next year.

The final contract includes across-the-board increases of 3.25 percent the first year, 3 percent the second and third years, and 3.5 percent the fourth year.

The contract also provides market equity of 2.5 percent the first year. A portion of the 2.5 percent will be ATB, and a portion will be departmental. The second and third years provide 1.15 percent ATB market equity.

The contract also includes additional money for promotions and merit increases.

The total estimated cost to Eastern is $2.6 million the first year, $2.2 million the second year, $2.3 million the third year and $2.2 million the fourth year.