BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 114
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Date of Hearing: July 3, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC EMPLOYEES, RETIREMENT AND SOCIAL
SECURITY
Warren T. Furutani, Chair
SB 114 (Yee) - As Amended: June 20, 2012
SENATE VOTE : 25-12
SUBJECT : Teachers: retirement.
SUMMARY : Requires, beginning July 1, 2013 and annually
thereafter, collective bargaining or employment agreements for
community college and adult education instructor, reflecting the
full time equivalent for each class of affected employees, be
submitted electronically, as specified, to the California State
Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS).
EXISTING LAW requires that each collective bargaining or
employment agreement for a part-time community college
instructor subject to the 525 hour minimum standard specify the
number of hours that equals full-time. However, employers are
not required to provide copies of collective bargaining or
employment contract agreements to CalSTRS except upon request on
a case by case basis.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS : The following information was submitted to the
Committee by CalSTRS, "Community college educators employed on a
part-time basis may elect to be covered by the CalSTRS Defined
Benefit (DB) Program. Although the design of the DB Program
works well for full-time employees, a number of issues have
arisen over the years about its application to part-time and
adult education community college staff. The most significant
issue has been the difficulty in reporting compensation in order
to establish the appropriate levels of service credit."
"Part-time community college instructors accrue service credit
based on Full-Time Equivalent (FTE), equal to the number of
hours of creditable service that a part-time community college
or adult education instructor would be required to complete if
he or she was working full-time in their position. The FTE is
based on the hours of instruction that a full-time faculty
member is required to perform in their assignment. The
SB 114
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community college employer compensates the part-time instructor
for the hours worked, based on an hourly pay scale. When the
district payroll office reports to CalSTRS, it reports the
actual earnings for the member and they calculate an 'earnable,'
which is the hourly pay rate multiplied by the FTE."
"The statutory minimum FTE for adjunct faculty of 525 hours
reflects the typical requirement for 15 hours per week of
primary duties performed over a 35-week school year for a
part-time community college instructor. However, certificated
faculty are categorized by classes of employees, and different
classes of employees have different hourly standards for the
duties they are required to perform. An English instructor may
be required to teach a different number of hours than a science
instructor, who also is paid for laboratory hours. In those
cases, the FTE for those two classes of faculty would be
different. In cases where the FTE would be lower than the
statutory minimum of 525 hours, the employer is required to
report 525 hours for the faculty members, which means affected
faculty receive less service credit than they should."
By requiring these collective bargaining or employment
agreements to be submitted to CalSTRS, SB 114 will allow CalSTRS
to cross-reference the information against the data received in
the monthly reports that are submitted by employers to CalSTRS.
In addition, CalSTRS is working with the Chancellor's Office to
reach an agreement whereby CalSTRS may utilize the data they
receive from community college employers as a means to verify
the FTEs reported to CalSTRS.
According to CalSTRS, "This information in conjunction with the
collective bargaining or employment agreements will provide
CalSTRS with a better understanding of how to help employers
report accurate FTEs so that they do not simply report the
statutory minimum of 525, as is the current practice for some
community colleges. Also, the additional information may help
to ensure that part-time instructors are accruing the correct
amount of service credit."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Federation of Teachers (Sponsor)
California Labor Federation
SB 114
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Community College League of California
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Karon Green / P.E., R. & S.S. / (916)
319-3957