BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2295
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 2295 (Ridley-Thomas)
As Amended July 2, 2014
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |73-0 |(May 23, 2014) |SENATE: |32-0 |(August 19, |
| | | | | |2014) |
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Original Committee Reference: HIGHER ED.
SUMMARY : Extends the length of time, from one year to three
years, for which California Community College (CCC) faculty are
entitled to transfer a leave of absence for illness or injury
upon his or her acceptance of election of employment to another
school district or CCC district.
The Senate amendments specify that a CCC faulty, shall have
transferred with him or her to a second district the total
amount of leave of absence for illness or injuring to which he
or she is entitled under existing law as specified; including:
1) the person, within three school years succeeding the school
year in which the employment in the first district is
terminated, signifies acceptance of his or her election or
employment in an academic position in another district; and, 2)
the person, prior to the expiration of a period greater than
three years during which the employee's reemployment rights are
in effect under a local bargaining agreement in the first
district, signifies acceptance of his or her election or
employment in an academic position in another district.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Allows every academic employee employed five days a week by a
community college district (CCD) to be entitled to 10 days'
leave of absence for illness or injury and any additional days
should the governing board allow for illness and injury
(Education Code (EC) Section 87781).
2)Authorizes the governing board of a CCD to adopt rules
permitting academic employees of the district to use leave
earned, as specified, in cases of compelling personal
importance; and, specifies that the additional leave time
shall not exceed six days in any single school year (EC
AB 2295
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Section 87781.5).
3)Allows any academic employee of a CCD 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 CCD
at any time during the second or any 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 (as specified in
EC Section 87781). Authorizes that the board of governors
shall adopt rules and regulations prescribing the manner in
which the first district shall certify to the second district
the total amount of leave of absence for illness or injury to
be transferred. Current law also specifies that no governing
board shall adopt any policy or rule, written or unwritten,
which requires any employee transferring to its district to
waive any part or all of the leave of absence which he or she
may be entitled to have transferred (EC Section 87782).
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, the following cost factors exist:
1)Administration: This bill is unlikely to result in any
significant administrative costs for CCDs or the California
State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS); and,
2)CalSTRS retirement benefits: This bill will likely result in
an increase in total creditable compensation for some faculty,
upon retirement. The increase to CalSTRS liability is
unknown, but could be significant.
COMMENTS :
Background. EC Section 87782 (as described in the "existing
law" section of this analysis) was initially designed for tenure
track faculty. Current law requires the transfer of sick leave
between CCDs to be transferred from one district to another
within the year succeeding termination of employment from a
district. However, according to the Faculty Association of
California Community Colleges (FACCC), sponsors of the measure,
"Due to the lack of reasonable assurance of employment,
part-time faculty are never truly terminated from employment."
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FACCC contends that part-time faculty are not offered subsequent
courses to teach and that this may cause some faculty lapses
longer than a year of employment at any one district. Because
of this situation, some faculty have experienced difficulty
requesting their sick leave be transferred from one district to
another once it has become clear they are not returning to work
at a specific district, or if they are ready to retire and were
not aware they only had one year to transfer sick leave.
Additionally, upon retirement, faculty are entitled solely to
sick leave reported by their employer to the CalSTRS in his or
her final year of employment, not any year of employment.
Purpose of the bill. According to the author, part-time faculty
often work in multiple CCDs for the span of their entire career
and are unaware they are able to transfer their unused sick
leave between districts, thereby missing out on potential
sources of a safety net in the event of an illness or the
benefit of service credit upon retirement. The author argues
that there is no statewide policy on the rules for transferring
unused sick leave for part-time faculty, subsequently; this has
resulted in confusion for CCDs and part-time faculty. The
author states, "AB 2295 will allow for a part-time faculty
member to reasonably determine if he or she is not returning to
work at a specific campus."
FACCC contends that in order for all sick leave to be properly
credited to a part-time faculty when his or her time is being
reported to CalSTRS, that he or she needs additional time to
complete the reporting process. FACCC states, "AB 2295 will
greatly aid this effort and allow all part-time faculty to fully
capture their unused sick leave for both medical necessity and
for CalSTRS reporting.
Analysis Prepared by : Jeanice Warden / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN: 0004948