Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 21:18:05 -0500
From: Elizabeth Jackson <echristian@WEBTV.NET>
Subject: Re: Merit pay for Serial Librarians (Sunee Grima)

There is no doubt in my mind that merit pay pits one employee against
the other unless there is some clear quanititative criteria such as
production of physical objects, where you can count. In a way this
becomes a kind of piece work renumeration.

I cannot refrain from sharing the tale of what happened in Atlanta
Georgia....not a library, but an education story. A reform
superintendent of education devised a merit system in which teachers
were ranked against each other in merit groups. Not only was pay
determined in this way, but the rankings were published in the city
newspapers. Guess which Southern city had 100 % AFT membership that
included a teacher ultimately elected Presdident of the American
Federation of Teachers. There can be significant labor implications for
systems that seem inequitable.