BILL ANALYSIS �
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2705|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2705
Author: Williams (D), et al.
Amended: 5/19/14 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 4-0, 6/25/14
AYES: Wyland, Correa, Huff, Monning
NO VOTE RECORDED: Liu, Block, Hancock
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 56-9, 5/27/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Community colleges part-time faculty
SOURCE : University Professional and Technical Employees
DIGEST : This bill amends various provisions in the Education
Code (ED) related to the California Community College (CCC)
faculty and changes the references from part-time and temporary
faculty to contingent faculty.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Defines "faculty" as those employees of a CCC district 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, CCC
health services professionals, handicapped student programs
and services professionals, and extended opportunity programs
CONTINUED
AB 2705
Page
2
and services professionals.
2.Defines any person who is employed to teach adult or CCC
classes for not more than 67% of the hours per week considered
a full-time assignment for regular employees having comparable
duties to be classified as a temporary (part-time) employee.
3.Requires the governing board of a CCC district to employ
faculty for the first academic year of his/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/her employment."
A faculty member shall be deemed to have completed his/her
first contract year if he/she provides service for 75% of the
first academic year.
4.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.
This bill:
1.Replaces the terms "part-time" and "temporary" faculty with
"contingent" faculty in various provisions of the ED, as
specified, related to the CCC faculty.
2.Makes the following legislative findings and declarations:
A. The terms "part-time faculty" and "temporary faculty" do
not adequately describe the qualifications, contributions,
and importance of the CCC faculty to whom those terms have
been applied.
B. "Contingent faculty" is a more accurate and useful term
with which to refer to these educators, who are so integral
to the successful functioning of CCC in this state.
C. There are inconsistencies in the ED with regard to the
definitions of CCC faculty, and the Legislature seeks to
standardize the terms "full-time faculty" and "contingent
faculty."
CONTINUED
AB 2705
Page
3
D. It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this
bill, to act consistently with, and in no way to compromise
or limit, the holding of the Court of Appeals in the case
of Cervisi v. Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board (1989),
208 Cal.App.3d 635.
1.Makes several nonsubstantive changes to existing law and
repeals the requirement for the California Postsecondary
Education Commission to conduct a comprehensive study of the
CCC system's part-time faculty employment, salary, and
compensation patterns as they relate to full-time CCC faculty
with similar education credentials and work experience. This
study was due to the Legislature and the Governor on or before
July 1, 2000.
Comments
Unemployment insurance (UI) eligibilty . A concern has been
expressed by some stakeholders that this bill could have legal
ramifications in the Cervisi v. Unemployment Insurance Appeals
Board ruling.
In 1989, an American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local in San
Francisco won an important victory in the California Court of
Appeals. In its precedent-setting decision, the Court affirmed
AFT's view that part-time faculty do not have "reasonable
assurance" of assignment rights in the next school term and
therefore should not be ineligible for unemployment benefits
during periods of lay off. Since the decision, known as the
"Cervisi Decision," part-time faculty around the state who have
no job security, whose assignments are contingent upon adequate
funding, enrollment, and program changes, should be eligible for
unemployment benefits. To note, part-time faculty who are
unemployed after the end of any semester or summer session can
therefore apply for and receive benefits provided they are
otherwise eligible for benefits.
According to the Employment Development Department (EDD), in a
letter to the author, when asked how the UI program determines
benefit eligibility for individuals employed by educational
institutions, the EDD responded that the program is fact
specific and determined by whether an employee has "reasonable
assurance" of employment after the recess period ends and that
CONTINUED
AB 2705
Page
4
the program does not consider school employees titles when
determining eligibility for UI benefits and when applying the
reasonable assurance provision.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/26/14)
University Professional and Technical Employees (source)
California Community College Association of Student Trustees
California Conference of the American Association of University
Professors
California Part-time Faculty Association
Communications Workers of America District 9, AFL-CIO
Faculty Association of California Community Colleges
OPPOSITION : (Verified 6/26/14)
California Federation of Teachers
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author's office and sponsor of the
bill, the University Professional and Technical Employees, argue
"the current terms do not adequately describe the role
part-time/temporary faculty have come to occupy within the
California community college system" and that describing faculty
who teach 67% or less of full-time faculty, as part-time
faculty, suggests that these faculty members are only temporary.
They argue that this results in departments using this as an
excuse to prevent part-time faculty from engaging in various
decisions. Additionally, "referring to these instructors as
part-time faculty demeans their value, assumes they are not
giving their full attention to student success, and negates the
fact that they are the instructional backbone of every community
college." One could argue that this bill helps bring more
recognition to the role of part-time faculty.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The California Federation of
Teachers (CFT) states this bill revises numerous statutes
related to CCC faculty to change references from "part-time"
faculty to "contingent" faculty. While well intended, changing
the definition of part-time faculty in the ED may have the
effect of inviting courts to revisit the Cervisi decision held
by the California Court of Appeals (1989), and make it harder to
CONTINUED
AB 2705
Page
5
vindicate the rights of temporary CCC teachers to collect
unemployment benefits. In that case, the appellate court ruled
that part-time, temporary instructors are eligible for
unemployment if they have a teaching assignment that can be
cancelled for lack of funding, low enrollment, or other factors.
CFT continues, "This is, unfortunately, a case of unintended
consequences. While the name change may offer some intangible
benefit to employees who prefer to not be called part-time, the
Education Code and a century of cases repeatedly use the term
'part-time' in advancing the rights of faculty. It is not just
an accurate description; it is a term that labor attorneys rely
on for their opinions and cases under the Education Code."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 56-9, 5/27/14
AYES: Achadjian, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonilla,
Bonta, Bradford, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Ch�vez,
Chesbro, Cooley, Dababneh, Dickinson, Eggman, Frazier, Garcia,
Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Hagman, Hall, Roger Hern�ndez, Holden,
Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina,
Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Perea, John A.
P�rez, V. Manuel P�rez, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas,
Rodriguez, Salas, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NOES: Allen, Donnelly, Beth Gaines, Gatto, Grove, Harkey,
Jones, Logue, Mansoor
NO VOTE RECORDED: Alejo, Brown, Conway, Dahle, Daly, Fong, Fox,
Gomez, Gorell, Melendez, Pan, Patterson, Quirk-Silva, Skinner,
Vacancy
PQ:k 8/4/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****
CONTINUED