Our 2024 Partnership Agreement creates 3 Workgroups to address top priorities for state workers: the high cost of housing, improving our Step Raise pay system, and streamlining how we bargain State Entity Agreements.

Each Workgroup also has an Organizing Committee. That's where you come in! While COWINS members appointed to the Workgroups are interacting directly with the State's team, Organizing Committee members will be giving feedback to the Workgroups and keeping their coworkers informed on the progress being made.

Housing

The Housing Workgroup is established in Article 32.9 of the Partnership Agreement. This Workgroup will work to establish programs that address the housing availability and affordability issues that currently face state workers.

The Housing Workgroup is set to convene prior to March 31, 2025, in order to develop pilot programs that can be implemented in the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years. Members of the Housing Workgroup have not yet been appointed by the Colorado WINS Executive Board.

State Entity Agreements

The State Entity Agreement (SEA) Workgroup is established in Article 34.1 of the Partnership Agreement. This Workgroup will work to re-imagine how we bargain State Entity Agreements for individual departments and institutes of higher education, to ensure agreements are negotiated efficiently and effectively.

The SEA Workgroup is built to last for 12 months. As the name of the Workgroup suggests, the SEA Workgroup will spend its first 6 months developing new processes for how SEAs are bargained for individual departments and institutes of higher education. For the next 6 months after that, the SEA Workgroup will consider how to improve the process of negotiating our main Partnership Agreement.

Steps 2.0

The Steps 2.0 Workgroup is established in Article 31.2 of the Partnership Agreement. This Workgroup will work to design a new version of Step Raises that better recognizes the years of dedication that state workers have given to serving Coloradans.

The Steps 2.0 Workgroup is tasked with creating a one-pager outlining the basics of a new Step Raise system by March 31, 2025. Then, the Workgroup must produce potential design options for the new Steps system by January 2026. Finally, the Workgroup will produce a final Step Raise system by March 31, 2026, to be finalized as an MOU to our Partnership Agreement and implemented in the 2027 fiscal year.