Bargaining Summary 9/3/13

Article 20: Salary

The University presented a Salary counterproposal.  In its proposal, the University agrees to commit an estimated $3.5 million in additional dollars towards increasing bargaining unit faculty member salaries, as compared to its last salary offer, bringing the total dollars in new salary and OPE offered to faculty to more than $23 million.   The University’s latest proposal would increase NTTF salaries by an average of 12.4% and salaries for tenured or TTF by 11.9% after compounding through fiscal year 2015, not including the significant dollars to be spent on NTTF and TTF promotion and post-tenure raises at 8% of salary.

The proposal offers bargaining unit faculty members a 1.5% across-the-board increase for FY13, FY14, and FY15.  We explained that the University did not agree to increase the FY15 across-the-board increase to 2.0%, in part because across-the-board increases exacerbate internal inequities.  The University instead offered a pool of money equal to up to 2% of NTTF salary in FY14 to fund salary floors, an increase of approximately $600,000 over the University’s last offer.  The proposal also commits a pool of money equal to 1.5% of TTF salary in FY 15 to address internal and external equity, totaling $929,000 in salary and OPE.

Similarly, in lieu of extending the retroactive FY13 across-the-board increase from January 2013 to September 2012 as proposed by the Union, the University’s proposal takes that same amount of money and distributes it equally to all faculty members in the form of a one-time payment of $350 (prorated for part-time bargaining unit faculty members).  We explained that this approach commits more dollars to lower-paid faculty members.  In all, the one-time payment adds an additional $662,000 to the University’s economic proposal.

The University accepted the Union’s proposal that both TTF and NTTF will receive at least an 8% raise upon promotion, and an 8% salary increases for full professors who successfully complete their first post-promotion major review after the ratification of the collective bargaining agreement.  This is a new component of the University’s salary proposal and represents the equivalent of implementing six years of average increases of 1.3% per year for six years for each full professor faculty who receive the 8% increase, adding an estimated $1.3 million in increased, recurring costs.

The University’s proposal continues to prioritize its commitment to recruiting and retaining excellent faculty.  The following chart summarizes the University’s current offer: 

Article 24: Leaves

The University presented a Leaves counterproposal, which amends only a few components of the Union’s last proposal on the subject.  The proposal agrees that bargaining unit faculty members who do not earn sick leave will not have their pay docked for absences due to illness that does not qualify as FMLA or OFLA leave.  Absences that do qualify under FMLA and OFLA will be treated in accordance with those statutes.  The proposal also provides bargaining unit officers of instruction who do not earn vacation with paid leave during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day and during the week of Spring Break.  We explained that the paid leave benefit was not extended to officers of research due to the fundamental scheduling and pay differences between the two types of positions, including the typical workload and work responsibilities during those two weeks.  Finally, the proposal agrees to extend paid parental leave benefits to both parents when both are employed by the University.

Article 31: Release Time

The University presented a Release Time counterproposal, which allows the Union to purchase additional release time, up to 5 courses totaling no more than 20 credit hours per academic year.  The University will inform the Union of the cost of the releases requested based on salary, OPE and recovery of indirect costs.  To prevent potential undue burdens on individual departments and units, the proposal provides that no more than one bargaining unit faculty member may be released from any one department or unit at a time, unless approved in writing by the Provost.

Article 9: Contracts

The University presented a Contracts counterproposal.  The proposal increases job security for Career NTTF by increasing the standard contract length in non-funding contingent positions.  Under the proposal, Career NTTF will receive a contract up to three years in duration, depending on the rank of the bargaining unit faculty member.  We explained that extended contracts were not compatible with funding contingent positions, however, because those contracts are tailored to and dependent on grant funding.  Consistent with the University’s previous Contracts proposal, the University does not agree to grant all Career NTTF with the contractual right to an expectation of continued employment.  We pointed out that when the policy statement concerning an expectation of continued employment for Career NTTFs was adopted in 2007, NTTFs faced an “up or out” requirement regarding promotion, which the University has agreed to remove in this Agreement.  We also reiterated our concerns that a reasonable expectation of continued employment looks similar to de facto tenure, fundamentally changes the nature of a contract position, and eliminates the flexibility to make changes upon expiration of a contract.

The proposal requires the University to provide notices of renewal or non-renewal for appointments that are not funding-contingent no later than April 1st of the last year of the member’s current appointment, and includes monetary incentives for the University to provide timely notice of renewal or non-renewal.  The proposal also provides that the University support and encourage, where feasible and appropriate, the creation of NTTF appointments at .50 FTE or above and mandates that the University may not appoint a Career NTTF at an FTE level of below .50 FTE to preclude providing benefits.