I. Why Work-to-Rule? The History behind the Current Work-To-Rule Action
On Monday, September
9, 2004, faculty and professional staff (librarians, counselors, etc.) of
Quinsigamond Community College joined our colleagues at the other fourteen
community colleges in Massachusetts and embarked on a job action to bring
attention to the Governor’s refusal to pay wages for faculty and professional
staff promised by his own negotiators at the Board of Higher Education.
In the spring semester of 2001, the faculty and professional staff members of MCCC began working under a new three-year contract, effective July 1, 1999 through June 30, 2002. Under this contract faculty agreed to increase their teaching workload by 25% in return for a classification system, which would standardize the way faculty and professional staff would be compensated. The classification contract guaranteed that faculty and professional staff would be compensated with an increase in pay for a promotion, change in rank, a newly awarded degree, rise in seniority, or a positive evaluation.
In 2002 when the contract expired, the Board of Higher Education agreed to extend the contract for an additional year, July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2003. Unfortunately, this contract extension was never funded. In September of 2004, the Massachusetts legislature finally, after a two-year hiatus, passed a supplemental budget funding the contract raises for 2002-2003. However, Romney immediately vetoed this line item appropriation. MCCC awaits a legislative override of the Governor’s veto with anticipation and hope. This override could happen, at the earliest, in January of 2005. In the meantime, Romney is ignoring a signed agreement, our contract, which the MCCC membership continues to honor in the performance of our 25% increased workloads.
During the 2003-2004 academic year the membership of MCCC began working without a contract and consequently, without a pay increase. Currently, the membership of MCCC is beginning a third year, 2004-2005 in which there appears to be no promise of a contract or a pay increase. Romney has suggested opening contact negotiations for this current year with an offer of 0%, 0%, 0% thereby implying that MCCC could potentially receive no pay increases for the next three years. (Incidentally, the Governor, in an attempt to gut the MCCC and state unions in general, has offered 1% pay increases, if union members are willing to do away with the agency fee.) This offer does not represent negotiating in good faith. If the Governor’s plans come to fruition, faculty and professional staff at the Massachusetts Community Colleges potentially will not have received a pay increase in five years.
Unfortunately, we members of MCCC have previously experienced the effects of a five-year interval without a pay increase. We have felt the effect of inflation and the rise in the cost of living on the quality of the lifestyles on our families.
There are other consequences also. In order to attract new faculty and professional staff members, our institutions must pay national market rates. New hires often end up receiving higher pay offers at market rates than employees who have been with the institution for a substantial period of time. When such instances occur, faculty and professional staff file individual grievances to address this unjust situation. The effect of addressing these situations on a case-by-case basis is that inequities occur systemically. The point of the expired contract was to eliminate such inequities by establishing a system to compensate for promotions, newly change in rank, a newly awarded degree, rise in seniority, or a positive evaluation which woud apply to both current and new faculty and professional staff. In return, we agreed to increase our workload by 25% percent.
It is time to act and be on “Work-to-Rule.”
Work to Rule is
“refusing to do any work that is not specifically required by contract” (MCCC
News, Sept. 2004, page 3). Work to Rule
was deemed a legal job action by a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
decision in the 1970s.
By contract, a
professional staff member is required to work
37 1/2 hours per week, customarily within the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m., performing the duties specified on the E-7.
By contract, faculty
have an instructional workload of 29 to 35 hours per week and a
non-instructional workload of 11 hours per week. If the instructional workload is more than 31 hours for faculty
teaching only didactic courses, or more than 34 hours for faculty teaching
other than only didactic courses, then the non-instructional workload is
adjusted. Note that for most faculty
their combined instructional and non-instructional workload is at least 40
(29 instructional plus 11 non-instructional) hours per week. For other faculty, their workload can
exceed 40 hours, even without an adjustment for non-instructional hours,
because the adjustment does not kick in until the instructional workload is 32
hours for didactic courses and 35 hours for non-didactic courses. So, a faculty member with a didactic
workload of 31 hours still is required to do 11 hours of non-instuctional work,
for a combined total of 42 hours.
Incidentally, state paychecks specify wages paid for only 37 1/2 hours
of work.
§ Work assigned duties only specified on E-7.
§ Do not accept additional duties without a corresponding reduction in previously assigned duties.
§ Work schedule (Article12.04.C. p. 36)
o “2. During the term of this Agreement, the normal workweek for professional staff members shall be 37 1/2 hours per week.
o 3. During the term of this Agreement, the normal workday shall not exceed 7 1/2 hours, excluding lunch.
o 4. Whenever a professional staff member is required to work more than 37 1/2 hours in a particular week, the staff member shall receive compensatory time of 1 1/2 hours [emphasis added] for each hour worked over 37 1/2 hours within the next sixty (60) working days, subject to mutual agreement between the professional staff member and the President of the College or the President’s designee. [NOTE: Bank time is considered voluntary, while compensatory time is the contractually-agreed upon method for work performed beyond 37 and 1/2 hours per week.]
o 5. The customary work week for professional staff members shall be Monday through Friday, within the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. but in no case shall a professional staff member be required to work more than five (5) days in any seven (7) consecutive day period; provided that a professional staff member who is assigned to teach may request a revised work schedule.”
§ No volunteering
§ Limit participation in student activities to those stated in the E-7.
§
College committees:
meet and adjourn if possible.
Work-to Rule affects faculty non-instructional workload, which consists of student advisement, office hours, college service, college recognized community service, and professional development activities (Article 12.03.A, page 32)
The 11 hours of non-instructional work is allocated among those areas mentioned in the previous sentence, as follow:
i. Serving as advisor to student
activities
ii. Serving on governance, ad hoc, standing committees,
system-wide task forces or committees, or labor-management committees
iii. Preparing grant proposals
iv. Participating
in College, Division, Department, or other related college meetings and/or
activities
v. Participation in the improvement and development
of academic programs and resources, including recruitment
vi. Serving as department chair
è Student Advisement Guideline.
The student advisement workload of 3 hours is based on an assignment of 18 advisees (Article 12.03.C.1, page 33 and Article 12A.01.D, page 39)
§ Do not sign a “Change of Advisor” form, agreeing to take on an additional advisee, if this would increase your total number of assigned advisees to 19. The advising office can not take another advisee off your list, if you want to add a student.
è Office Hours Guideline
§ No extra office hours
è College Service Guideline
Most faculty perform more than 4 hours of college service. An individual faculty member typically is involved in a wide range of activities such as standing college committee work, search committees, community service, student activity advising, accreditation review, ad hoc academic initiatives (for example, the Teaching Excellence Initiative), research and writing projects, recruitment, consulting in business and education settings, activities with professional organizations in their fields, etc.
§ One Student Activity or
§ One Committee (see appendix for list of committees) or
§ One Academic Program Improvement (e.g. Teaching Excellence Initiative) or
§ Community Service Recognized by College or, maybe,
§ Professional Development Activities (NOTE: This seems to be a gray area whether it can satisfy the
non-instructional workload. Article 12.03.A.2.e, page 32 includes it as
non-instructional workload but Article 12A.01.D, page 39, does not
include it as a way of satisfying one’s non-instructional workload.)
§ The amount of time faculty and coordinators spend on their duties should be no more than the amount of time reassigned from course(s). A 3-credit course equals 6 hours per week. Keep a log of your time.
§ Work is performed between 8:00 a.m. through 4 p.m. Do not accept work outside these times, even if compensation is offered.
5. Your Individual Concerns about Work-to-Rule
If you have particular concerns about the impact of work-to-rule on your situation, you are encouraged to talk to Marilyn Martin or any member of the Work-to-Rule Committee.
6. Work-to-Rule Committee Members
§ Karen Cox
§ Dan Daly
§ Daniel de la Torre
§ Kathy Frederickson
§ George Harris
§ Arpi Hedeshian
§ Marilyn Martin
§ Trent Masiki
§ Jean Nicholas
§ Adrienne Nichols
§ Jim Rice
§ Adrienne Smith
§ Lorraine Sommella
§ Meredith Weiss
§ Ken Wong
§ Maureen Woolhouse
§
(all interested
are encouraged to join)
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