In January the PSC filed a grievance on behalf of all affected members, challenging violations of contract provisions on workload by the administration at the New Community College (NCC). These violations, including imposition of mandatory assignments during annual leave in 2012, created an excessive workload.
One of the workload violations was the restriction of junior faculty reassigned time for research, by imposing a uniform college-wide requirement that this time be taken only on Mondays. The contract provides that use of this reassigned time must be determined through individual consultations that take each junior faculty member’s particular circumstances into account. It is a violation of the collective bargaining agreement for a college unilaterally to establish a one-size-fits-all leave schedule for all faculty. Faculty all have different research needs and schedules. In addition, the NCC administration’s rule about taking this reassigned time on Mondays, as originally stated, would have required using holiday Mondays for that purpose, as no alternatives were provided.
The workload grievance, including the issue of this restriction on junior faculty reassigned time, was discussed at a Step Two hearing on February 15. On February 29— weeks after the union grievance was filed— an administration e-mail to NCC faculty stated alternate days for use of reassigned time for the three holidays falling on Mondays during that semester (the first of which was less than a week away). Clarion went to press in March, shortly after the February 29 e-mail, but did not learn of it until after the issue had been printed.
NCC management violations of the contract on workload, including failure to respect provisions on junior faculty reassigned time, have continued, and the union grievance continues to move forward.
