UFF-USF

UFF-USF – USF Board of Trustees Collective Bargaining Agreement 2006-2007

Vote on Your 2006-2007 Collective Bargaining Agreement at the union meeting on Friday, April 20, 2007, between noon and 1 pm, at Tampa campus in EDU 258 during the regular chapter meeting.

The United Faculty of Florida at USF and the USF Board of Trustees negotiators reached “tentative agreement” on the Salary Article and the Benefits Article of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on Friday, April 13, 2007. Additionally, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed that establishes a process to explore the development of a Paid Parental Leave program. See the text online at http://uff.ourusf.org/connections/REOPENER.doc.

All faculty and professional employees in the bargaining unit are eligible to vote to accept or reject the new CBA. If you vote “yes” to ratify, the new Agreement provisions will take effect immediately. Promotion Increases will be retroactive to 8/7/06, Merit Increases will be retroactive to 10/1/06, and Market Adjustment Increases will be retroactive to 1/2/07. Competitive Pay Increases have already been distributed.

If the unit votes “no” to ratify, negotiators must return to the bargaining table to renegotiate an agreement which is satisfactory to you. The UFF bargaining team and executive officers urge you to vote “yes” on this new CBA. A large faculty vote will convey to the Board of Trustees that we, the faculty, are seriously interested in our professional futures.

Due to the protracted process of bargaining this contract, timeliness in ratification is important if employees are to receive the salary increases before the end of this spring 2007 semester. For this reason, all voting will take place at the next meeting of the UFF-USF Chapter, from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, April 20, 2007 at Tampa campus EDU 258.

Much of our past Agreement has remained in place, and the complete text of the proposed changes to the Agreement is available online.

The proposed Agreement affects the terms and conditions of employment for Faculty, Librarians, and Other Bargaining Unit Members, and the Highlights are as follows:

SALARY

• Competitive Pay Increase: this legislatively mandated 3.0% to base salary has already been distributed.
• Promotion Increases: remain the same as in previous contracts – all employees receiving a promotion receive a 9% increase to base salary. In addition, promotions to Assistant Prof./Librarian receive a $1,500 increase to base salary, promotions to Associate Prof./Librarian receive a $2,500 increase to base, and promotions to Professor/Librarian receive a $3,500 increase to base salary.
• Merit Increase: establishes a 1.4% salary pool of the entire in-unit salary base. Eligible employees are those evaluated Satisfactory (3.0 on 5-point scale) or above. It is distributed at department/unit level. The numerical score in each area of the employee’s assigned duty is multiplied by the assigned FTE to derive an overall raw score in each area of assignment. The raw scores are added together to determine the overall performance raw score of the employee. In each department/unit the performance scores are added for all eligible employees. The individual’s percentage of the department/unit’s total performance score is calculated by dividing the individual’s performance score by the department/unit’s total performance score points. Each eligible employee is awarded an amount equivalent to his/her percentage of the department/unit’s pool of money.
• Market Adjustment Increase (Compression-Inversion): establishes a 0.10% salary pool of the entire in-unit salary base. Eligible employees are those who have been employed at the University for 25 years or more as of 8/6/06, and whose performance over the last six annual evaluations averaged Strong (4.0) or better and whose base salary after the Competitive Pay Increase is less than 80% of the Research I OSU/ARL/other relevant national market salary data. The base salary of each eligible employee is adjusted to the amount that brings his/her 6/30/06 base salary plus the CPI to 80% of the average national market salary but not to exceed $10,000.
• Additional Salary Increase: the University and the union agreed USF will have the authority to provide an additional salary increase to individual faculty for situations including promotions, verified counteroffers, increased duties and responsibilities, extra compensation, special achievements and market equity, including compression and inversion.
• Effective Dates: Promotion Increase – 8/7/06; Competitive Pay Increase – 10/1/06; Merit Increase – 10/1/06; Market Adjustment Increase – 1/2/07.

DOMESTIC PARTNER HEALTH INSURANCE

The UFF-USF and the University will each appoint three representatives to serve on a Domestic Partner Health Insurance Study Committee to investigate the availability of an insurance carrier to provide the insurance, the coverage options and cost and a non-state funding source to pay the employer’s premium contribution. The study committee shall issue a written report within four (4) months of the ratification of this Article.

PARENTAL LEAVE

The UFF-USF and the University will establish a joint committee to develop a proposal for parental leave for faculty who become parents through birth or adoption of a pre-school child(ren). The proposal will seek input from the faculty and will examine issues including:

• Who and how many per household should be eligible at any given time?
• Duration of leave at any given time.
• How many times could a faculty member be eligible during employment at USF?
• Effect on tenure clock for pre-tenure faculty who take parental leave.
• Provide cost analysis and source of funding, including the use of sick leave and/or annual leave time.
• Service to the University of South Florida after parental leave or the consequences if faculty voluntarily does not return.

OVERALL

• The combined Pay Increases yield a 4.5% raise in base salary, depending on eligibility.
• Through the Market Adjustment Increase, the union has made significant progress in reducing the negative effects of salary compression and inversion for employees who have given 25 and more years of their careers to USF and whose evaluations reflect strong contributions to the mission of the University.
• The union proposed the establishment of two important benefits – Domestic Partner Health Care and Parental Leave – that have the potential to have a positive effect on the quality of working conditions, recruitment and retention at USF. These benefits are not yet resolved but the University has for the first time agreed to work with the union to form mechanisms for studying the issues and for making concrete proposals for establishing these benefits at USF.
• The union proposed that an employee could assign his/her two free courses per semester to a spouse or child. An agreement was not reached but your union will continue to pursue this benefit in the next round of bargaining.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 15th, 2007 at 9:03 pm and is filed under Announcements, Bargaining, News, Salaries etc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.