BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Carol Liu, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 2295
AUTHOR: Ridley-Thomas
AMENDED: April 10, 2014
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE:June 25, 2014
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Lenin Del Castillo
SUBJECT : Community college faculty: sick leave.
SUMMARY
This bill extends the length of time, from one year to five
years, for which community college faculty are entitled to
transfer a leave of absence for illness or injury upon his or
her acceptance of election of employment to another district.
BACKGROUND
Current law:
1 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. (Education Code � 87781)
2 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.
(Education Code � 87781.5)
3 Provides that any academic employee of a community
college district who has been an employee of that district
for a period of one school year or more and who accepts an
academic position in a school district or community
college district at any time during the second or any
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succeeding school year of his or her employment with the
first district, or who within the school year succeeding
the school year in which the employment is terminated,
signifies acceptance of his or her election or employment
in an academic position in another district, shall have
transferred with him or her to the second district the
total amount of leave of absence for illness or injury to
which he or she is entitled under Education Code � 87781.
(Education Code � 87782)
ANALYSIS
This bill extends the length of time, from one year to five
years, for which any academic employee of a community college
district are entitled to transfer with him or her a leave of
absence for illness or injury to another district upon his or
her acceptance of election of employment.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . Current law limits the time in
which an academic employee's sick leave can be transferred
between community college districts to one year. However,
the author's office indicates that many part-time faculty
often work in multiple districts for the length of their
career and face problems in transferring their unused sick
leave. The author argues that "there is no statewide
policy on the rules for transferring unused sick leave for
part-time faculty which causes confusion for districts and
faculty, and that most re-employment rights contracts
expire after three years if a faculty member has not
received employment during that time. Increasing the
amount of time that a faculty member has to transfer sick
leave from one, to five years, allows re-employment
rights' to be exhausted, and time for the faculty member
to learn of their rights and to facilitate the transfer of
leave."
2) Arguments in support . According to the Faculty
Association of California Community Colleges (FACCC),
sponsor of this measure, "due to the lack of reasonable
assurance of employment, part-time faculty are never truly
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terminated from employment." Rather, they are not offered
subsequent courses to teach which can lead to lapses of
longer than a year of employment at any one district. The
FACCC further states that "because of this, some faculty
have experienced difficulty when requesting that their
sick leave be transferred from one district to another
when it has become clear that they are not returning to
work at one district, or if they are ready to retire and
did not know that they only had a year to transfer sick
leave." Additionally, in order for all sick leave to be
fully credited and properly reported to CalSTRS by an
employer for retirement purposes, the faculty may need
additional time to complete this process.
However, staff notes that it is unclear if a total of five
years is necessary, especially when compared to the total
of one year that is provided under existing law.
Additionally, it is common for re-employment contracts,
which are bargained locally at the various community
college districts, to only be up to three years in length
although we understand that at least one bargaining agent
allows re-employment rights for up to four years.
Therefore, staff recommends amendments that would change
the number of years that a faculty's sick leave can be
transferred between districts from five years to three
years or in the presence of a locally bargained agreement,
the length of time in which the faculty's re-employment
rights expire if its exceeds three years.
3) Related legislation :
AB 675 (Fong) would allow 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. This bill is pending on the Senate Floor.
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.
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SUPPORT
American Association of University Women
Faculty Association of California Community Colleges (sponsor)
OPPOSITION
None on file.