Know Your Rights

by Debbie DeLaRosa, FA, AFT 6157 Grievance Officer

During these difficult times, it is incumbent upon all full time faculty to keep abreast of contractually agreed upon working rights and how they impact their teaching overload. Article 15 of the AFT 6157 Collective Bargaining Agreement addresses overload and faculty rights to this working condition. Here is a brief snapshot of those rights as they affect FULL TIME faculty.

Voluntary Nature of Overload

All overload, whether it occurs within or outside of the academic semesters of our 156 day calendar is voluntary. Exceptions do apply. Work may be necessitated by virtue of job requirements by District, by State mandate, appointment to committee work etc. Faculty are compensated according to the applicable provisions of Article 15 as related to payment for overload.

Overload within the Academic Semester

Overload is limited to 6 (six) units or 40% of a full load each semester. Priority for this overload is as follows:

Full-time regular academic faculty from home campus; full-time regular academic faculty from the other District campus; temporary full-time contract faculty.

Overload Assignment Outside of the Academic Semester

Instructional Faculty

Full time faculty are paid from the Intersession and Summer Pro-Rata Salary Schedule (Appendix D-3 Lecture, and Appendix D-4 Lab) for any instructional assignment outside of the 156 days for the first 40% taught annually.

Instructional overload assignments over the 40% annual maximum will be paid at the faculty member’s placement on the Adjunct Pro Rate Salary Schedules (Appendix D-1, Lecture and Appendix D-2, Lab). Faculty who teach summer and/or winter intersession may be offered more than one course per session.

Non-Instructional Faculty

These members shall be paid at the non-instructional hourly rate (Appendix D-5) for service provided outside of the academic semester.

Priority of Assignment for Overload Outside of the Academic Semesters

Keep in mind the following priority list when teaching overload outside of the Academic Semesters.

· Faculty members from the discipline and home campus who were not employed during the preceding summer and/or winter intersession;

· Faculty members from the discipline and home campus who were employed during the preceding summer and/or winter intersession;

· Faculty members from the home campus who were not employed during the preceding summer and/or winter intersession;

· Faculty members from the home campus who were employed during the preceding summer and/or winter intersession;

· Faculty members from the other District campuses who were not employed during the preceding summer and/or winter intersession;

· Faculty members from the other District campuses who were employed during the preceding summer and/or winter intersession.

Finally, it is also important to be familiar with the definition of “discipline” as defined in the contract. Discipline is defined as the department where the faculty member either receives his or her 1.0 equivalency load or the majority of the load if he or she teaches in more than one department. Majority of the load shall be defined as 50% or greater of a load.

Also please remember that although overload is certainly a contractual right of all full time faculty, we encourage full time faculty to be aware of the tremendous cutbacks of our adjunct faculty when deciding how much overload to teach.