CHAPARRAL

New Legislative Bills for Part-Timers

Kathy Holland,
2nd Vice President,
GCC Guild

Part-timers have some new legislation to look forward to this year.  The first is SB 955 (Burton) is now signed into law.  This new law provides for part-timers to participate in professional ancillary activities without violating the 60 percent law.  The 60 percent law applies only to teaching assignments, so extra-curricular activities cannot be counted towards that 60 percent assignment. Such activities include (but are not limited to) governance, staff development, grant writing, and advising student organizations.  This law, coupled with AB 654 (Goldberg) expands opportunities for part-timers to contribute to the campus beyond what happens in the classroom and office hours.  If you’ve forgotten what AB 654 is all about, here’s a refresher:  part-time faculty should be informed six weeks in advance of assignments and should be paid for the first week of an assignment when the class is cancelled less than two weeks before the start of semester.  It also allows the opportunity to participate in the full range of on-campus responsibilities including committee work, textbook selection, and departmental and campus-wide meetings. 

Now for this year’s new legislation: AB 2412 and AB 2232.  The Faculty Association of California’s Community Colleges (FACCC) sponsors both bills.  Both have been introduced into the state legislature and, if passed, could become quite beneficial to part-timers.  AB 2412 (Yee) would allow the Employment Development Department (EDD) to assess a penalty on an employer who willfully provides incorrect information regarding a faculty member's employment status.  AB 2412 is a continuation of FACCC's efforts to resolve the dilemma of part-time community college faculty being wrongly denied their unemployment benefits because their community college district told EDD that the part-timer was reasonably assured of employment and/or simply provided wrong information to EDD.  If passed, this bill will make it easier for many to receive unemployment insurance.

AB 2232 (Assembly PERS Committee) This measure will allow the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) to adjust the current formula for calculating sick leave for part-time community college faculty to service credit.  This will ensure that part-time community college faculty receive full conversion of sick leave into service credit when calculating their benefits under the CalSTRS Defined Benefit (DB) Program.  Right now, part-timers are credited roughly 60 percent of that sick pay when converted.  The new bill would change that percentage to a full 100 percent of that pay, if passed.

Here at Glendale College, our negotiating team will begin the process of introducing (and bargaining!) our re-openers.  One of the re-openers will be for the full-timers, and the other for us.  I want to thank all of you for contributing your e-mail responses to my request for re-opener ideas.  I’ll keep you posted as to what’s happened on that front.  In the meantime, have a great spring semester!&

kholland@glendale.edu

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