RF Central Office Workers Boycott Anniversary Breakfast
The CUNY Research Foundation (RF) marked its 50th anniversary January 24 with a fancy breakfast. Central Office workers represented by PSC-CUNY would have celebrated too, if they had a fair contract offer on the table. RF Central Officers workers, who administer post-grant fiscal matters for city, state, federal and private awards, tell Clarion they boycotted the breakfast because an omelette is no substitute for respect and a fair contract.
Management continues to offer nominal salary increases while demanding significant hikes in employee contribution to health insurance premiums and major concessions in benefits for new hires. Stay up to date on the workers’ contract campaign at psc-cuny.org/rfco.
Adjuncts’ Actual Work Hours and Health Care Reform
The IRS wants to know how many hours adjunct faculty actually work.
The Internal Revenue Service is preparing guidelines for new Affordable Care Act (ACA) rules that take effect in 2014. Under the ACA, employers with 50 or more employees will be expected to offer health care coverage to workers who put in 30 hours or more per week, or will pay a penalty.
At the start of this year, the IRS noted in the Federal Register that “educational organizations generally do not track the full hours of service of adjunct faculty, but instead compensate adjunct faculty on the basis of credit hours taught.” Along with the Treasury Department, the IRS is inviting comment “on how best to determine the full-time status of employees” for adjuncts and other workers in similar situations.
Some part-time faculty activists have voiced concern about employers cutting adjuncts’ hours to avoid having to provide coverage under the new law.
