Update #3

Meeting date: Monday, 26 June 2017
Bargained Article: 8.F.G [Appointment]
Article Opened By: Management
UFF’s Issue: Extra University Compensation
CBA Language under review: Section 8.F.G [“Extra University compensation is defined as University compensation for any duties in excess of a full appointment (1.0 FTE)”]

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Extra University Compensation Section 8.F.G

Towards the end of Spring 2017 college governances enacted numerous budget cuts in response to our anticipated shortfall of performance-based funding. These measures included such things as cutting travel funding, optional surrendering of office telephones, and eliminating replacement faculty lines.

UFF-FGCU identified pay for overload courses, or “Extra University Compensation,” as an amount that is not formalized in the Collective Bargaining Agreement and thus not protected from future budget cuts. The standard practice for overload course pay has been $1000/credit hour for years, and is often (incorrectly) perceived as University policy. To insulate that money against future budget cuts, UFF proposed that we add the following language to Article 8:

Draft language:
8.4.G.1 When an overload for-credit course is assigned to a faculty member in excess of one’s full regular assignment, the minimum compensation will be $1000 per credit hour.

Management opposed such language. During our discussion, it was revealed that the payment of $1000/crh overload courses is in fact not standard, nor codified on any university document. It is not policy, but simply an artifact of past practice. Management (thankfully) expressed no plans to offer pay below $1000/crh, and further insisted that overload compensation should be variable depending on demand for the course, availability of qualified faculty, and timing of the assignment. There was no interest expressed in formalizing minimum rates for any type of overload compensation (which includes not just classes, but other extra appointments like program leaderships). Management desires to maintain as much upward flexibility as possible to accommodate such appointments.

Although UFF-FGCU has continued concerns about future budget cuts and their effect on extra university compensation, as well as the sort of self-dealing that could occur without standardized rates for overload assignments, we heartily share and respect management’s interest in upward flexibility.

In light of the information revealed while negotiating our concern, UFF-FGCU moved to close Article 8 without change. UFF-FGCU would like to inform its membership that since there is no concrete policy for overload compensation in place, offered rates for such appointments should not be considered hard policy, a de facto standard or inflexible.