BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Carol Liu, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 675
AUTHOR: Fong
AMENDED: May 28, 2014
FISCAL COMM: No HEARING DATE:June 4, 2014
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Lenin Del Castillo
SUBJECT : Community college employees: maternity and paternity
leave.
SUMMARY
This bill allows a community college faculty member to count a
leave of absence, including maternity and paternity leave, to
his or her second, third, or fourth contract year, as is
required in a local bargaining agreement.
BACKGROUND
Current law:
1 Requires the governing board of a district to employ
faculty for the first academic year of his or her
employment by contract. Any person who, at the time an
employment contract is offered, is neither a tenured
employee of the district nor a probationary employee, as
specified, shall be deemed to be employed for "the first
academic year of his or her employment." A faculty member
shall be deemed to have completed his or her first
contract year if he or she provides service for 75 percent
of the first academic year.
(EC § 87605).
2 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. (EC § 87661)
3 Requires the governing board of a community college
district to provide for a leave of absence from duty for
any academic employee of the district who is required to
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be absent from duties because of pregnancy, miscarriage,
childbirth, and recovery therefrom. The length of the
leave of absence, including the date on which the leave
began and the date on which the employee shall resume
duties, shall be determined by the employee and the
employee's physician. Provides that this section shall be
construed as requiring the governing board of a community
college district to grant leave with pay only when it is
necessary to do so in order that leaves of absence for
disabilities caused or contributed to by pregnancy,
miscarriage, or childbirth be treated the same as leaves
for illness, injury, or disability. (EC § 87766)
4 Allows every academic employee employed five days a
week by a community college district to be entitled to 10
days leave of absence for illness or injury and any
additional days that the governing board may allow for
illness or injury, exclusive of all days he or she is not
required to render service to the district, with full pay
for a college year of service. (EC § 87781)
5 Authorizes the governing board of a community college
district to adopt rules permitting academic employees of
the district to use illness leave earned in cases of
compelling personal importance, but provides that the
additional sick leave time, together with any other leave
for personal necessity, as specified, shall not exceed six
days in any single school year. (EC § 87781.5)
6 Provides that any days of leave of absence for illness
or injury may be used by an academic employee, at his or
her election, in cases of personal necessity. The
governing board of each community college district is
required to adopt rules and regulations requiring and
prescribing the manner of proof of personal necessity for
these purposes. No such accumulated leave in excess of
six days may be used in any school year for personal
necessity. (EC § 87784)
7 Provides that every classified employee employed five
days a week by a community college district shall be
entitled to 12 days leave of absence for illness or
injury, with additional days as allowed by the governing
board for illness and injury. (EC § 88191)
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8 Allows a contract or regular employee for a community
college to use any days of absence for illness or injury
earned, as specified, in cases of personal necessity,
including any of the following:
a) Death of a member of the employees immediate
family when additional leave is required beyond what
is already provided;
b) Accident involving the person or property of
the employee or of a member of his or her immediate
family;
c) Appearance in any court or before any
administrative tribunal as a litigant, party or
witness under subpoena or any order made with
jurisdiction; and
d) Any other reasons the governing board may
prescribe.
1 Requires each governing board of each community college
district to adopt rules and regulations requiring and
prescribing the manner of proof of personal necessity for
these purposes and specifies that earned leave in excess
of seven days may not be used in any college year, except
under specified conditions, including the condition in
which a number of days in excess of seven is provided in
an agreement between the exclusive representative of the
employees and the community college district.
(EC § 88207)
ANALYSIS
This bill provides that a community college 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 bargaining representative of
the faculty member. Additionally, the bill provides that time
spent on paid or unpaid leave of absence 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.
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Paid or unpaid leave of absence may include, but is not limited
to, any of the following:
1) Leave for reason of the birth of and bonding with a
child or bonding with an adopted or foster child;
2) Leave for care for a parent, spouse, or child with a
serious health condition; and
3) Leave because of an employee's own serious health
condition.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author's office,
while current law provides that a community college
faculty tenure candidate must provide service for at least
75 percent of the first academic year of employment, it is
silent on the second, third, and fourth years of the
tenure process. However, the author's office indicates
that many community college districts also use the 75
percent threshold for these years. Therefore, faculty who
utilize sick leave or other types of leave, including
maternity or paternity leave or unpaid leave, during this
time may be subject to a setback in their four-year tenure
review process and lose a year of service. The Faculty
Association of California Community Colleges, sponsor of
this measure, indicates that community colleges are
required to provide at least 175 days of instruction in an
academic year which equates to 35 weeks per year. If a
tenure track faculty member is required to teach 75
percent then that equals 26.25 weeks of instruction,
leaving 8.75 weeks remaining for maternity or paternity
leave with job protection.
AB 675 provides that a faculty member who is on a leave of
absence for specified reasons, including paternity or
maternity leave or care for a parent, spouse, or child
with a serious health condition, to be deemed to have
completed a contract tenure year if he or she has served
sufficient time during the year.
2) Protected leave . The federal Family Medical Leave Act
(FMLA) and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) provide
certain employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected
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leave a year for the purpose of bonding with a child, care
for a parent, spouse, or child with a serious health
condition, or due to an employee's own serious health
condition, and requires group health benefits to be
maintained during the leave as if employees continued to
work instead of taking leave. But there is no pay
associated with the FMLA and CFRA, other than what the
employee has earned in other accrued leaves that may
apply. The FMLA and CFRA are only employment protected
leaves.
3) Collective bargaining . It is unclear to what extent
community college districts allow the use of maternity or
paternity leave or unpaid leave towards computing a
faculty member's service and which threshold (75 percent
of the academic year or some other percentage) they use
during the tenure review process for the second, third,
and fourth years. Regardless, this is mostly left to
local discretion and each of the community college
districts may decide differently. By requiring time spent
on paid or unpaid leave to be included in computing
service if the faculty member serves "sufficient time,"
which presumably would be defined locally, this bill could
be in conflict with an existing local bargaining agreement
that does not recognize leave time as part of the
computation or limits it in some manner. One could argue
the bill could circumvent the local bargaining process or
provide faculty an advantage on this matter at the
bargaining table. Therefore, the Committee may wish to
consider if this is better left to be addressed at the
local level.
4) Related legislation : AB 1606 (Chavez) would allow
community college academic and classified employees to use
up to 30 days of leave, as specified, for the purpose of
bonding with a new child. This bill is pending on the
Senate floor.
SUPPORT
California Teachers Association
Faculty Association of California Community Colleges (sponsor)
Rancho Santiago Community College District
OPPOSITION
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None on file.