Know Your Rights

by Debbie De La Rosa and Barbara Hanfling

1. Accessing Your Personnel File - Article 6
by Debbie DeLaRosa, FA, AFT 6157 Grievance Officer

Wondering about your personnel file with the district? What it contains and who has access? Well, the district keeps personnel files on all full time and adjunct faculty members. Full time faculty personnel files are located at the district office and adjunct faculty personnel files are kept in the offices of Academic Support/Services located on each campus.

Every faculty member can access, at reasonable times, their personnel files to examine the content. An employment record includes anything that pertains directly to the employment relationship between faculty members and the District, anything that is retained in the file. If you want to check out your personnel file (and we recommend that you do that periodically), please notify either Human Resources (Full time) or Academic Support (Adjunct) to set up an appointment.

Information cannot be released from the file without the consent of the faculty member unless the release is compelled by law, by a judicial order or a lawfully issued subpoena. Keep in mind that all written material that may serve as a basis for a faculty member’s suspension, dismissal, or reprimand shall be kept in the faculty member’s personnel file.

Article 6.4 states: “Information of a derogatory nature…, shall not be entered or filed in the faculty member’s personnel file unless and until the member is given written notice and an opportunity to review and comment thereon. A faculty member shall have the right to enter and have attached to any such derogatory statement, the faculty member’s own comments. Such review shall take place during normal business hours, and the faculty member shall be released from duty for this purpose without salary reduction.”

Finally, evidence of professional achievement or special service to the college, District, community or profession may be placed in the personnel file by either the faculty member or the District management.

Your personnel file is the window into your employment, your tenure and your Seniority Rehire status. It is your file and you have a right to know what it contains. Please contact me if you have any questions at extension 6607.

2. Adjunct Faculty: Right to Collect Unemployment over Intersession

by Barbara Hanfling, FA, AFT 6157 Executive Director

Adjunct faculty have the right to collect unemployment (UE) over intersession, based on a Superior Court decision filed by the CFT called Cervisi et al vs. Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board. The Superior Court stated the following: “…the assignment form issued to the instructors stated that: ‘employment is contingent upon adequate class enrollment.” The Court also held that the record established that the offers of employment made by the school employer were “contingent on adequate enrollment, funding, and the approval of the District’s Board of Governors.”

The Superior Court concluded that “under the statute, an assignment that is contingent on enrollment, funding, or program changes is not a ‘reasonable assurance’ of employment.” Based on this Court Decision fought for by San Francisco CFT local, adjunct faculty now enjoy a right and privilege that can help them through the times when they are not teaching. If you wish to collect unemployment, you must apply in a timely manner. Therefore, it is important that you access the unemployment board web site for all the information you might need.

First file your claim for unemployment benefits with your local UE office online. If your claim is denied at the local level, you must appeal this denial within the time frame listed on the denial form. Also remember that even if you have a contract for teaching for the spring semester, you must answer no to the question of whether you have a guarantee to work. That contract is not a guarantee as you know; you can be bumped from this contract. Also when asked if you have a Union, you may answer no to that question also, as the question is geared toward those who work from Union Hiring Halls. Unfortunately your Union doesn’t help you find jobs.

You may want to mention the Cervisi decision listed above when you are applying for UE benefits. Please feel free to contact the FA, AFT 6157 if you have any questions, and consult the following sites for more information:

Unemployment-
www.edd.ca.gov

CPFA-
www.cpfa.org/unemployment.html

FACCC-
www.faccc.org/part_time/parttime.htm