Hello Faculty Colleagues! We hope your summer is going well and that you are all healthy and able to spend some time enjoying being with people you have missed for the past year plus. The PFF Negotiations Team has been working all summer, and we wanted to provide you with a detailed update on some of the most recent negotiations progress.
VACCINE PLAN For the past several months, in anticipation of the return to campus, the District has been building a plan to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for employees and students who are on campus. PFF, CCE, CAST, and AA representatives have been involved in those discussions from the beginning and helped develop the District’s COVID-19 Vaccination and Immunization Plan (see attached). This Plan aligns with the plans at many other CCC, CSU, and UC campuses for fall. At the Governing Board meeting last night, the Board approved a revision to BP/AP 7330 (Communicable Disease) that allows the District to mandate vaccines in the event of a widespread public health epidemic or pandemic. The Board also approved an MOU between PFF and the District that outlines our negotiated impacts and working conditions when/if the Plan is implemented. While the full Vaccination and Immunization Plan and the MOU are attached, the important take-aways are as follows:
The Vaccination and Immunization Plan will go into effect when/if the FDA fully approves one or more of the available COVID-19 vaccines (most likely Pfizer).
Employees who will be on campus would have 6 weeks from the date of the Plan going into effect to be fully vaccinated with one of the available COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer, J&J, Moderna).
Employees who cannot get the vaccine must file the appropriate Medical or Religious Exemption. Employees who do not qualify for an exemption and refuse to be vaccinated will not be able to be on campus and, depending on the nature of their work, may not be able to continue working.
The MOU outlines the progressive discipline in place for those who do not get vaccinated and do not have an approved exemption, as well as the exemptions and use of leaves.
Negotiations on the impacts and working conditions for other employee groups are ongoing, and the Plan will be implemented equally across employee groups.
We anticipate that this Plan could/will take effect as soon as later this summer and will very likely impact those teaching face to face or working on campus in the fall semester.
If you have concerns related to the Vaccination and Immunization Plan that are not addressed, please let us know ASAP. We recognize that vaccinations are a potentially sensitive topic for many and that you may have questions you need answered. Please reach out so that we can help clear up confusion immediately.
COVID-19 TELECOMMUTING MATERIALS & INTERNET REIMBURSEMENT Thank you to everyone who has been patient in waiting for this process to be finalized. While CCE, CAST, and AA had a reimbursement process in place several months ago, our agreement was delayed as we pushed hard for more reasonable reimbursements related to our work from home activities over the past 16 months. Ultimately, while we were unsuccessful in our repeated arguments in favor of flat, one-time payments, we were able to negotiate some improvements to the proposed reimbursement plan that will hopefully benefit more faculty. The Governing Board approved our MOU last night outlining the reimbursement process for materials, equipment, and internet for faculty (see attached). Here are the important take-aways:
Faculty can apply for retroactive reimbursement for work-related expenses incurred between March 13, 2020 and July 5, 2021.
Materials and equipment purchases can be reimbursed (with receipts) up to $200 per item, with a total cap on reimbursement of $500. Reimbursements larger than that require VPFAS approval.
If the District reimburses at or above 50% of the cost of the item, the item belongs to the District, and they will collect the item when telecommuting ends.
For this reason, it’s important not to apply for 50%+ reimbursement for items that you want to keep or maintain ownership of.
Internet service will be reimbursed for all full-time and part-time faculty at 50% of the monthly cost of internet service between March 2020 and June 2021. If you are telecommuting through Fall 2021, reimbursement will occur quarterly.
The process for reimbursement, including all necessary forms, will be available on the fiscal services website by the end of the week.
Training on how to submit the reimbursement paperwork, including internet bills, is available in the PD portal, including two workshops planned for next week:
Reimbursement Process - Tuesday, July 13 at 3pm
Reimbursement Process - Monday, July 19 at 11am
COMPENSATION FOR ONLINE ACCESSIBILITY Last month, we signed an MOU with the District that provides some compensation to faculty for undertaking the important work in ensuring that online classes are fully accessible. Accessibility takes effort and time, and we want to both incentivize the necessary work while ensuring that there is some compensation for the time involved. Here are the important takeaways:
ALL faculty will receive an additional 2 hours of PD compensation (instructional hourly rate) for completing an accessibility training course (available through @One, the PD portal, etc.)
Full-time faculty will be compensated for 8 hours (instructional hourly rate) for accessibility conversion of online courses. Part-time faculty will be compensated for an amount of hours based on their average instructional load between Spring 20 and Spring 22. Proof is required through completion and submission of the CCC OEI distance ed accessibility rubric.
The form to apply for this additional compensation will be made available shortly on the Palomar website.
EXTENSION OF POET COMPLETION COMPENSATION FOR NEW PT FACULTY HIRES Last month, we signed an MOU with the District that extends the terms of the MOU from last summer that provides compensation for part-time faculty members to complete POET through the Fall 2021 semester, which will allow new hires to be compensated for completing POET in order to be distance education certified for teaching.
COMPENSATION FOR MANDATED HR TRAININGS Last month, we signed an MOU with the District that compensates part-time faculty beyond their contractual PD pay for up to four hours per academic year for any state or federally mandated HR training (ex: Title IX, sexual harassment, etc). Full-time faculty are able to complete the mandated trainings within their allotted 42 PD hours each year.
CONTRACT PROGRESS We are about to enter the third year (2021/22) of our three-year District/PFF Collective Bargaining Agreement, also known as the contract. Each year, the District and PFF can elect to reopen up to two articles (in addition to mandatory reopening of Article 15- Compensation and Article 16- Benefits) for renegotiation. In winter of 2020, the District elected to reopen Article 4- Workload and Calendar and Article 20- Working Conditions for the second year of our contract (20/21), and PFF elected not to reopen any articles due to the perceived financial precariousness of the District at the time. We successfully negotiated changes to Article 16 back in spring 2020. However, due to COVID and administrative turnover, the District did not bring any proposals forward for Articles 4, 15, or 20 (and their associated appendices) for over a year. In late June, we agreed to close without negotiation the reopened 2020/21 articles and immediately sunshine our proposed articles for reopener for 2021/22. At the Board meeting last night, the Governing Board approved the suggested articles for reopener for negotiation for 21/22:
Mandatory Reopeners:
Article 15- Compensation (with Appendices F & G)
Article 16- Benefits (with Appendix J)
District Reopeners:
Article 4- Workload and Calendar
Article 20-Working Conditions
PFF Reopeners:
Article 8- Course Maximums
Article 12- Department Chairs/Directors
Our hope is to negotiate the above articles this summer and fall. We will then move into preparation for negotiation of our next three-year contract which will cover 2022-2025. At that time, all articles and appendices in the contract will be open for negotiation.
We keep an ongoing Negotiations To-Do list, so please let us know when you think of items in any article that need attention!
JUNETEENTH HOLIDAY The federal government approved the recognition of Juneteenth as a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, commemorating the final notification of emancipation of enslaved Black people in the United States. This is an important day worthy of historical recognition and understanding. The District acted quickly to immediately revise the negotiated academic calendar and closed Palomar’s campuses for June 18th and June 19th but did not involve PFF or CCE in these discussions and decisions. Unfortunately, this meant that some classes and scheduled events and programs were cancelled with little to no notice. We notified the District team that this unilateral change to the academic calendar constituted an Unfair Labor Practice and discussed our displeasure and the unintended consequences of this last minute change. We also requested timely revision of the already approved 2021/22 and 2022/23 academic calendars to appropriately reflect the new Juneteenth holiday. We would like to hear from any faculty who had negative impacts to their classes, programs, or working conditions (including compensation) as a result of the Juneteenth campus closure this year.
STATE ALLOCATED COLA Last night, the Governing Board approved a 5.07% COLA effective in July for CCE due to the parameters of their existing contract. Past practice has been “me too," where all constituent groups get the same COLA when negotiated. We are in the process of exploring more equitable ways to allocate our share of COLA for faculty, which may look different than a blanket application for all. Please keep an eye on your email for more information about our idea for a potential new way to apply COLA along with a survey to determine faculty opinions.
THANK YOU PFF appreciates the hard work that all faculty have been doing over the past 16 months and honors your amazing flexibility and creativity that has provided our students with a great learning experience. It’s been a strange and difficult year, and while we are looking ahead to the light at the end of the tunnel, we recognize that there will be some bumps in the road as we navigate the return to campus. We are working constantly to ensure that faculty rights and working conditions are protected and strengthened and stand in solidarity with our colleagues in CCE. Please reach out to us with any questions, concerns, or comments. We can’t wait to start seeing some of you in person again, and as always, we remain available virtually!
In Unity, Your PFF Negotiations Team: Jenny Fererro, Barbara Baer, Teresa Laughlin, Lawrence Hamilton Lawson