BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 675
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 675 (Fong)
As Amended March 19, 2013
Majority vote
HIGHER EDUCATION 12-0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Ayes:|Williams, Chávez, Fong, | | |
| |Fox, | | |
| |Jones-Sawyer, Levine, | | |
| |Linder, Medina, Olsen, | | |
| |Quirk-Silva, Weber, Wilk | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY : States that a faculty member shall be deemed to have
completed the second, third, or fourth contract year, as
appropriate, if the faculty member provides service for a
percentage of the academic year as is required in an agreement
between the governing board of the community college district
and the exclusive representative of the faculty member.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Specifies that time spent on paid leave of absence, including,
but not limited to, paid or unpaid maternity leave, shall be
included in computing service if the faculty member serves
sufficient time during the year to allow for the evaluation of
the faculty member as required by any negotiated evaluation
procedure.
2)Makes minor and technical changes to existing law.
EXISTING LAW stipulates that the governing board of a district
shall employ faculty for the first academic year of his or her
employment by contract and that a faculty member shall be deemed
to have completed his or her first contract year if he or she
provides service for 75% of the first academic year (Education
Code Section 87605).
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS : Need for the bill. According to the author, current
AB 675
Page 2
law is silent as to the service percentage faculty need to
complete in their second, third, and fourth years of the tenure
process. Additionally, current law provides no protection for
faculty who utilize sick leave or other types of leave,
including unpaid leave to extend maternity or paternity leaves.
Said types of leaves are subject to collective bargaining. To
note, faculty are also eligible for job protection through the
federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the California Family
Rights Act (CFRA), and the California Pregnancy Disability Leave
(PDL) law.
The author states, "Nevertheless [regarding the aforementioned
protections], faculty who avail themselves of these rights are
currently subject to setback in their tenure process should the
leave impinge upon the 75 percent of service requirement, or
whatever other threshold a community college district might
set."
Background. Maternity and/or paternity leave, taken by
community college faculty while under the four-year tenure
review process, may lead to the loss of a service year.
Education Code Section 87661 defines "academic year" to mean a
period between the first day of a fall semester or quarter and
the last day of the following spring semester or quarter,
excluding any intersession term that has been excluded pursuant
to an applicable collective bargaining agreement.
According to the sponsors of this measure, Faculty Association
of California Community Colleges (FACCC), community colleges in
California are required to provide at least 175 days of
instruction in an academic calendar year (excluding summer
sessions). One hundred and seventy-five days of instruction
equals 35 weeks per year. If a tenure track faculty member is
required to teach 75% of an academic term that equates to 26.25
weeks of instruction leaving 8.5 weeks for maternity/paternity
leave with job protection.
However, what should be the practice is not being instituted
and/or applied at all of our community college districts.
CFRA and FMLA. California's Family Rights Act and the federal
FMLA allow up to 12 weeks of leave with job security. This
measure seeks to align state and federal law with the tenure
AB 675
Page 3
review process, which (as stated above) only allows for 8.5
weeks of leave.
Analysis Prepared by : Jeanice Warden / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN: 0002946