CSU/CFA Contract Negotiations:
Summary of Report from Third-Party Fact Finder

Issue #1: Grievance Procedures
Finding: Enacted in 2001, Senate Bill 1212 requires that the final decision in employee grievances over status (i.e., tenure, promotion, appointment and reappointment) shall be made by an arbitrator.  

Recommendation:  The contract should place no limits on the authority of an arbitrator to make a final ruling regarding employee grievances.  If the appellate court overturns  the Public Employment Relations Board’s 2006 decision making arbitrator rulings final, the parties shall request to meet and confer regarding a substitute provision.

Issue #2:  Lecturer Rights 
Finding:  There has not been any showing of need that, for the last stage of assigning temporary work, the work should be offered to “any other qualified candidate” without it first being offered to current temporary faculty.

The parties agreed during fact finding that Graduate Assistants and Instructional Student Assistants shall not increase by a percentage greater than the increase of full-time teaching faculty in the system.

Recommendation:  After it has been offered to faculty with full- and part-time appointments, available work should be offered to current temporary faculty before it is offered to “any other qualified candidate.”

Issue #3:  Workload
Finding:  The parties share responsibility for securing sufficient state funding to implement Assembly Concurrent Resolution 73 to hire additional tenure-track faculty as a means of reducing workload.
 
Recommendation:  Add language to the contract stating that the parties will jointly request funding from the legislature to implement ACR 73.

Issue #4:  Faculty Early Retirement Program
Finding:  It is unknown what effect, if any, the FERP has on the overall compensation package or the recruitment and retention of faculty. 

Recommendation: No changes to FERP should be made.

Issue #5: Salary
Finding(s): Faculty salaries lag comparable institutions by double digits.  If faculty benefits were included in the methodology used by the California Postsecondary Education Commission, the lag might not be so great. 

Both parties have made compelling arguments as to their positions on Service Salary Increases (SSIs). 

Recommendation(s):  Make no or minimal changes to FERP and parking fees because of their role in total compensation.

Split General Salary Increases into six month increments.  For example, instead of a 4 percent increase for 2006-07, increase salaries by 3 percent for the first six months of the contract and then by an additional 1 percent for the second six months.  Utilize the cost savings realized by this formula to help offset monies require for fund SSIs.

Establish a joint Salary Structure Committee to conduct a thorough review of the salary schedules and make recommendations for how they should be revised.

Issue #6:  Parking
Finding:  Reduced parking fees are part of overall faculty compensation and any changes in parking fees must be made in concert with other modifications in the compensation package.