BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION Senator Carol Liu, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Bill No: AB 1690 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Author: |Medina | |-----------+-----------------------------------------------------| |Version: |March 14, 2016 Hearing | | |Date: June 22, 2016 | ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes | ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Consultant:|Lenin DelCastillo | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Community colleges: part-time, temporary employees SUMMARY This bill requires community college districts to have collective bargaining agreements with part-time faculty that include specified conditions of employment. BACKGROUND Existing law defines "faculty" as those employees of community college districts who are employed in academic positions that are not designated as supervisory or management, as specified. Faculty include, but are not limited to, instructors, librarians, counselors, community college health services professionals, handicapped student programs and services professionals, and extended opportunity programs and services professionals. (Education Code § 87003) Existing law also defines any person who is employed to teach for not more than 67% of the hours per week considered a full-time assignment to be a part-time, temporary employee. (EC § 87482.5 and § 87882) The Board of Governors (BOG) of the California Community Colleges (CCC) has had a longstanding policy that at least 75% of the hours of credit instruction in the community colleges, as a system, should be taught by full-time instructors (commonly AB 1690 (Medina) Page 2 of ? referred to as "75/25"). Existing law requires the BOG to adopt regulations regarding the percent of credit instruction taught by full-time faculty and authorizes CCC districts with less than 75% full-time instructors to apply a portion of their "program improvement" funds toward reaching a 75% goal. However, the state has stopped providing program improvement funds and the BOG has since required CCC districts to provide a portion of their growth funds to hiring more full-time faculty. (EC § 87482.6) ANALYSIS This bill: 1) Requires community college districts that do not have a collective bargaining agreement with part-time faculty in effect as of January 1, 2017, to commence negotiations with exclusive representatives for part-time, temporary faculty regarding specified terms and conditions, as follows: a) Provides upon initial hire, the requirements for the evaluation of part-time faculty members, as specified, including, but not necessarily limited to, a contract or regular faculty peer evaluator who has expertise in the subject matter of the part-time, temporary faculty member's assignment. b) Requires the evaluation of part-time faculty members at least once every six semesters or nine quarters of service, exclusive of summer and intersession terms. c) Requires the placement on a seniority list for assignments, following six semesters or nine quarters of satisfactory service, as specified. The seniority for all assignments shall be determined based on the first date of hire at the applicable college and seniority lists shall be by campus unless otherwise locally negotiated between the community college district and the exclusive representative for AB 1690 (Medina) Page 3 of ? part-time, temporary faculty. d) Maintains the faculty member's workload for semester seven or quarter ten and beyond, as specified. As new assignments become available due to growth or attrition, these assignments shall be offered in seniority order to those part-time, temporary faculty members who have qualified to be placed on the seniority list, as specified, and previously successfully completed that same assignment. Provides that these assignments may be made up to a maximum annualized load, exclusive of summer and intersession terms, in the range of 60 to 67% of a full-time equivalent load. e) Provides that in cases where a reduction in assignment needs to occur due to program needs, budget constraints, or more contract faculty hires, the reduction shall occur first from among those part-time, temporary faculty members who have not yet qualified to be placed on the seniority list, and thereafter in reverse seniority order (i.e., use of "last in, first out" for reductions in assignments), as specified. Provides that each new assignment successfully completed shall be added to the part-time, temporary faculty member seniority list. f) Provides that the procedures governing refusal or rejection of offered assignments, diminution or loss of seniority rights, and additional leave or break-in-service provisions shall be locally negotiated between the community college district and the exclusive representative for part-time faculty. g) Requires that in cases where a part-time faculty, subsequent to qualifying to be placed on the seniority list, receives a less-than satisfactory evaluation, as defined, the faculty member shall be provided a written plan of remediation AB 1690 (Medina) Page 4 of ? with concrete suggestions for improvement, as specified. Provides that the faculty member shall be evaluated again the following semester and if the outcome is less than satisfactory, the faculty member shall lose all seniority rights and may be dismissed at the discretion of the district. Provides that appeal and grievance rights and procedures, if any, shall be subject to local collective bargaining. h) Provides that in all cases, part-time faculty assignments are temporary in nature, contingent on enrollment and funding, and subject to program changes, and no part-time faculty member has a reasonable assurance of continued employment at any point, as specified. 2) Provides that a community college district with a collective bargaining agreement with part-time faculty in effect as of January 1, 2017 and executes a signed written agreement, shall be exempt from the above requirements if the agreement takes into account all of the following: a) Part-time faculty assignments are based on seniority up to 60% to 67% of a full-time equivalent teaching load. b) A regular evaluation process for part-time faculty. c) Due process for termination once a part-time faculty member has qualified for the negotiated provisions. 3) Provides that a written agreement, confirming that these provisions have been included in a collective bargaining agreement, shall be signed by the exclusive representative for part-time faculty and the community college district, who are subject to that agreement, in order for the AB 1690 (Medina) Page 5 of ? district to be exempt. 4) Provides legislative intent language, as specified. STAFF COMMENTS 1) Need for the bill. According to the author's office, "job instability continues to be one of the greatest concerns for part-time/temporary faculty. The inability to negotiate reemployment policies at most community college districts has resulted in unreliable reemployment practices. This leaves many part-time faculty wondering if they will have a job the following semester. Additionally, many part-time/temporary faculty are left with no option but to piece together full-time teaching schedules through employment in two or more community college districts. The varying reemployment policies in these community college districts make it difficult for part-time/temporary faculty to plan their upcoming teaching schedules." The author's office contends that in most cases, part-time instructors are paid significantly less than full-time faculty for the same duties of preparation, teaching and grading, and assessment. In addition to receiving significantly less in compensation than their full-time counterparts, in most cases part-time faculty receive no health coverage and are not compensated for office hours outside of class to meet with students." The author argues that, "this lack of dignity, fairness, and equity translates to poor prospects for career advancement, resulting in many qualified part-time faculty leaving the profession annually." 2) Existing reemployment policies. Current law requires that reappointment rights for temporary faculty are a subject of negotiation during collective bargaining and provides that reappointment rights may be based on whatever factors are agreed to by both parties. Accordingly, many community college districts have established policies and practices regarding reappointment rights through the bargaining process. Additionally, several community college districts have successfully negotiated bargaining agreements that contain standards that are similar to those proposed by this measure, including the Grossmont-Cuyamaca, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Ventura community AB 1690 (Medina) Page 6 of ? college districts. While this bill is intended to provide job security for part-time faculty and minimum standards for how they are treated, the Committee may wish to consider whether this bill is necessary as community college districts and local bargaining units already have the ability to negotiate reemployment policies. Should all community college districts be mandated to do so or should this continue to be left to local discretion? 3) Limits discretion of the community college districts. In providing job security and establishing minimum standards for the treatment of part-time faculty, this bill specifies prescriptive requirements for local bargaining agreements that all community college districts would be required to adhere to. The Committee may wish to consider whether this bill could reduce the ability of the districts to meet their local community needs in offering course selections and quickly respond to changing market demands. The Community College League of California indicates, "by mandating a one-size fits all approach, this bill will impose conditions of employment that may not reflect local district needs, increase costs for districts and ultimately reduce student success." 4) Part-time faculty. For some time, the Legislature has considered various efforts to address the issue of community college districts hiring part-time faculty members in lieu of full-time faculty. Much of the reason to utilize temporary faculty is the lower costs associated with such faculty. Several studies on temporary faculty found that community college districts pay temporary faculty significantly less than full-time faculty performing the same duties, and nearly half of temporary faculty reported not receiving any type of benefits from their district. According to the Center for Community College Student Engagement's (CCCSE) April 2014 report, entitled, "Contingent Commitments: Bringing Part-Time Faculty Into Focus," 70% of the 400,000 faculty members of public, two-year colleges hired in 2009 were part-time instructors. The CCCSE report also found that part-time faculty teach 58% of community college classes and 53% of community college students. Additionally, the CCCSE report found AB 1690 (Medina) Page 7 of ? that differences in the actions of part-time and full-time faculty cannot necessarily be attributed to differences in the will or abilities of part-time faculty. The report contends that, "Most likely, they exist at least in part because colleges too often are not fully supporting part-time faculty or engaging them in critical elements of the faculty experience." According to the California Federation of Teachers, nearly 50% of the California Community College (CCC) course selections are taught by part-time faculty and part-time faculty out number full-time faculty by two to one. 5) Related budget activity. The 2016-17 budget bill includes $7 million in Proposition 98 General Fund for part-time faculty office hours and effectively restores this categorical program on an ongoing basis. 6) Fiscal impact. According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, all districts currently have collecting bargaining agreements that include provisions regarding part-time faculty. At least 41 community college districts, however, do not maintain a seniority list. Assuming costs of $5,000 to $10,000 per district to establish such lists, presumably for each academic department, one-time Proposition 98 General Fund reimbursable state-mandated costs would be $205,000 to $410,000 per district. Once established, the ongoing cost to maintain the seniority lists should be minor and absorbable. 7) Related and prior legislation. AB 1010 (Medina, 2015), similar to this measure, would have required community college districts to have collective bargaining agreements with part-time faculty that include specified conditions of employment. This bill failed passage in the Senate Appropriations Committee. SB 373 (Pan) proposed a cap on the number of part-time faculty for each community college district based on the 2014-15 fiscal year, thereby limiting new hires to only full-time faculty until the district reaches a 75% threshold of full-time faculty. This bill failed passage AB 1690 (Medina) Page 8 of ? in the Senate Appropriations Committee. AB 626 (Low) requires community college districts to provide funding to increase their full-time/part-time faculty ratio and to increase support for part-time faculty. This bill is pending referral in the Senate. AB 1807 (Fong, 2010) proposed to require community college districts, through collective bargaining, to establish and implement reemployment preference lists for part-time faculty. This measure was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. SUPPORT California Community College Independents California Faculty Association California Federation of Teachers California Labor Federation California Part-time Faculty Association California Teachers Association Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District Faculty Association of California Community Colleges San Diego Community College District Student Senate for California Community Colleges University Professional and Technical Employees Letters from individuals OPPOSITION Community College League of California National Right to Work Committee North Orange County Community College District -- END --