BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 259
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Date of Hearing: August 8, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 259 (Hancock) - As Amended: March 14, 2012
Policy Committee: Higher
EducationVote:6-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill expands the definition of employees under the Higher
Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA) to include
students whose employment is contingent on their status as
students, specifically to Graduate Student Researchers (GSRs).
FISCAL EFFECT
Assuming that the approximately 14,000 GSRs at UC choose to
unionize , UC will incur the following costs, which assumes
that, since GSR work is similar to that of the 6,000
postdoctoral scholars already under a bargaining agreement with
UC, some efficiencies will be gained:
1)Bargaining. One-time costs in the low hundreds of thousands of
dollars for bargaining sessions and travel.
2)Contract Administration-including training staff regarding
contract terms, grievance management, handling unfair labor
practice charges, responding to union information requests,
and conducting labor management meetings-could be in the range
of $1 million annually systemwide. UC estimates a cost of
about $1.7 million systemwide to administer its contract with
postdoctoral scholars, stating that this is a newer bargaining
unit than that for teaching assistants, and that newer units
generally require greater administration.
3)Compensation Increases. To the extent that collective
bargaining, in and of itself, results in overall compensation
increases for GSRs, systemwide costs would increase by about
$2 million annually for each 1% of across-the-board
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compensation increase.
4)Union Dues. If collective bargaining were to result in UC
covering the cost of union dues, UC estimates an annual cost
of $2. 3 million based on current GSR systemwide payroll costs
and United Auto Workers (UAW) dues rate. (The UAW represents
UC postdoctoral scholars and teaching assistants.)
Some of the above costs might be absorbable, and will likely
decline over time. Given years of tight budgets, however, it is
not likely that current UC administrative resources could simply
assume the entirety of this new responsibility.
In terms of funding, much of the above costs could be covered
from the grants and contracts that fund much of UC's research,
which in addition to funding the direct costs of the research,
include an allowance for recovery of indirect costs like
contract administration and other related overhead expenses. UC
indicates, however, that indirect costs are typically higher
than research sponsors are willing to pay and that recovery of
such costs varies among research sponsors. UC reports that rates
negotiated with federal agencies are among the highest, but are
still estimated at 5% to 18% below the true indirect costs of
conducting the research. To the extent the above costs are not
covered within the amount provided in grants and contracts, they
would be covered by the General Fund and student fee revenue.
COMMENTS
1)Background . HEERA provides a statutory framework to regulate
labor relations at the University of California (UC), the
California State University (CSU), and Hastings College of
Law. HEERA is administered and enforced by the Public
Employment Relations Board (PERB). In a 1998 decision, PERB
determined that under the current statutory language, UC's
12,000 Teaching Assistants (TAs), Readers and Tutors had
collective bargaining rights because their employment is not
contingent upon their status as students, but that GSRs, also
known as Research Assistants did not have such rights. (UC's
6,000 Postdoctoral Scholars may also collectively bargain
under HEERA.) The United Auto Workers (UAW) represents UC TAs
and Postdoctoral Scholars. Student employees equivalent to
GSRs at CSU are covered under HEERA by a voluntary agreement
with CSU.
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2)Difference between TAs, GSRs, and Postdoctoral Scholars .
a) Teaching Assistants/Associates/Fellows are enrolled
students, whose primary duty is assistance in all aspects
of instruction (tutoring, grading, advising, sectional
teaching, sectional laboratory teaching, field work
teaching, limited lecturing). These duties are performed
under the supervision of faculty "instructors of record"
and are paid from state funds (instructional money).
b) GSRs are enrolled students selected for high achievement
and promise as creative scholars, and assist faculty
members with scholarly research. GSRs may not be assigned
teaching, administrative, or general assistance duties, and
are paid from contracts and grants generated by the
faculty.
c) Postdoctoral Scholars are not enrolled students; they
are individuals who have recently completed a doctoral
degree, who seek additional scholarship and continued
research training. The Postdoctoral Scholar conducts
research under the general oversight of a faculty mentor in
preparation for a career position in academe, industry,
government, or the nonprofit sector.
3)Purpose . According to the sponsor (the UAW), graduate students
work at UC for five to 10 years while pursuing their PhDs.
During this time, they frequently move in and out of the TA
union, since they are employed as both TAs and GSRs. This
movement between jobs creates a lack of continuity, with the
same group of workers having unequal rights and benefits from
one term to the next. When student employees work as RAs, the
contractual rights they have when they work as TAs, such as
child care subsidies, family leave, workload protections, and
grievance and arbitration procedures, disappear.
4)Opposition . UC states, "SB 259 would fundamentally change the
relationship between faculty and GSRs from academic
mentor-mentee to one of employer-employee." "Research is not
'work' in the traditional employment sense, in that it does
not represent an exchange of wages for services. Academic
research is also unique in that individual discoveries do not
follow a set timeline. Because SB 259 fails to recognize
these distinctions, the time that GSRs devote to their
dissertation research could be in direct conflict with the
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workload provisions of a union contract."
According to UC, GSRs are often recruited and enrolled
specifically for research, but departments will require one or
two semesters as a TA in order to meet the instructional needs
of that department. The one or two semesters of as a TA also
tend to occur within the first year or so of their course of
study, with the GSR's focus shifting to research later on.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081