The BOT and the UFF teams met Monday and are pleased to announce that we have reached agreement on a Memorandum of Understanding on the COVID-19 Health Emergency. It took months of hard work, but both teams support the result. You can read the agreement here.
Some notable elements:
- Straightforward language allows faculty members to work remotely as long as their duties can be accomplished remotely; faculty with high-risk concerns who must report to campus can request a modification that may require medical documentation.
- Faculty may cancel class in the case of safety violations or unclean classrooms.
- The University’s telecommuting policy (at the heart of the kerfuffle about not being allowed to care for children while working remotely) does not apply to faculty whose job duties do not require them to be on campus full time during normal business hours.
- Twelve-month faculty members may roll over an additional 80 hours of annual leave to the next year, effectively saving it for later use.
- Several provisions concerning teaching and research that we agreed to in the spring will continue, including the option of excluding SPCI in evaluation materials; the stipulation that the rules applying to course-content ownership also apply of newly-online courses; the acknowledgement that annual evaluations, progress towards promotion/tenure reviews, and promotion/tenure reviews should take into account the reduction in faculty members’ ability to conduct or present their scholarship; and the continuation of the policy of automatically extending the tenure clock.
We are engaging in regular bargaining this week on Wednesday, September 2, at 2:00, on the remaining open articles: Layoffs, Salaries, Leaves, and Conflict of interest/Outside activity.
Bargaining sessions are open to faculty, and negotiations have benefited from the many faculty members who have been attending. We appreciate having you! If you would like to attend, respond to this message and we will send you the links when we receive them.
We also invite members to come to an online Bargaining Forum happy hour this Friday at 5:00. Members will receive an invitation and zoom link from UFF President Matthew Lata.
Regular updates can be found at our webpage: https://uff-fsu.org/
The key to a strong Collective Bargaining Agreement is a strong membership base, so if you are not a member, please join! There has never been a more important time for us to stand together. https://uff-fsu.org/wp/join/
All best,
Irene Padavic and Scott Hannahs, Co-Chief Negotiators, UFF-FSU