Office Hours, One Year Contract Highlight New Collective Bargaining Agreement by Lantz Simpson

Historical gains for hourly faculty were made in the March contract settlement with the District. The agreement, which runs until August 2001, is the best contract ever negotiated for hourly faculty at SMC. It provides for paid office hours for hourly faculty with 40% loads teaching English composition classes. This is the first time the District has ever paid for office hours. In addition, one-year employment contracts for about 200 long-term hourly faculty are scheduled to begin in Fall 2001. Loopholes were also sewn up to protect hourly faculty who are receiving medical benefits.

After years of Association effort, the District agreed to an office hours provision in the new contract. The plan will pay some English composition teachers for office hours. Their compensation will be at their classroom hour rate. The Association sees this only as a first step and will continue to press for paid office hours for all hourly faculty in future contracts.

Hourly faculty who have been at SMC for at least four years and have received satisfactory evaluations will receive one-year contracts beginning with the school year 2001-2002. About 200 faculty are estimated to be eligible for the one-year contracts. This is an expansion of the original Associate Faculty program that was started in 1994. This fall, Association and District personnel will work together to review the list of all eligible hourly faculty and notify those faculty to have their evaluations done this year.

To help hourly faculty maintain their health benefits, a loophole in the old contract was closed so that hourly faculty whose load involuntarily decreases can keep their benefits for two more semesters (as long as they are district employees).

The new collective bargaining agreement is posted under "contract" at www.smcfa.org. Printed copies are available upon request. This fall the Hourly Committee will be soliciting suggestions and requests from hourly faculty leading into next year's contract negotiations. (See meeting schedule.)