To: All UMDNJ Faculty & Librarians

From: Alex Bernstein, Executive Director AAUP-UMDNJ

Re: AAUP Files Grievance To Ensure All Faculty Receive Faculty Benefits and Rights as of Hire Date

Date: November 9, 2007

AAUP recently learned that UMDNJ is intentionally failing to provide you with the benefits and rights you are entitled to under the AAUP contract as of your hire date. Instead, UMDNJ is using your appointment date to determine your current and future benefits and rights.

AAUP's contract expressly provides that all faculty employed by UMDNJ at 50% or more of full time are eligible for the benefits and protections (i.e. salary increases, health insurance benefits, and job security) set forth in the AAUP contract.  Despite this, on October 19, 2007, Gerard Garcia, Acting Vice President of Human Resources advised me that "individuals who are awaiting faculty appointment [although employed and working as faculty] are excluded from the AAUP bargaining unit" and not eligible to receive the benefits and protections afforded faculty under the AAUP contract.  

This does not make any sense. Rather, this unilateral and inappropriate distinction between faculty awaiting appointment (faculty new hires and transferees) not only violates the spirit and intent of the AAUP contract, but establishes a two-tiered faculty system, which treats faculty new hires and transferees as second class citizens by failing to provide them with the benefits and rights UMDNJ provides to their colleagues. Faculty new hires and transferees perform substantially the same duties and responsibilities upon hire as upon appointment and as such, should receive the same benefits and rights all faculty receive under the AAUP contract.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

UMDNJ'S USE OF APPOINTMENT DATE RATHER THAN HIRE DATE IMPACTS ALL FACULTY.

HERE ARE JUST A FEW EXAMPLES:

1. Salary Increases:  Although Article VIII(B)(4)(a) of the AAUP contract expressly provides “all unit members hired on or before February 1 of the calendar year” are eligible for salary increases for the calendar year, UMDNJ is inappropriately depriving salary increases to faculty hired on or prior to February 1 and appointed after February 1 in the current and past fiscal years. This could have happened to you in prior years!

2. Length of Service: UMDNJ is inappropriately using the appointment date to determine length of service for faculty.  This impacts upon many current and future employment benefits and rights. For instance, UMDNJ inappropriately excludes clinical faculty from the job protections afforded them under Article XXV of the AAUP contract because they do not have 5 years of service as of their appointment date (but have 5 years of service as of their hire date). The inappropriate use of appointment date may also impact upon your pension benefits and any future rights that you may be grandfathered into based on your length of service.

3. Termination for Cause: Despite the “termination for cause” protections afforded all faculty under Article XXVI, UMDNJ is inappropriately treating faculty new hires and transferees as at-will employees until they are appointed. At will means that you can be terminated at any time for any nondiscriminatory or legal reason. This constitutes a de facto probationary period that was never discussed or negotiated with AAUP.

4. Health Insurance Contributions:  Despite the University’s acknowledgment that health insurance contributions for faculty must be negotiated, the University is inappropriately assessing faculty new hires and transferees 1.5% of their base salaries for health insurance contributions from the time of hire until their appointment date.

What is particularly troubling and further compounds the problem is that UMDNJ’S appointment process can take up to six (6) months or longer and that faculty new hires and transferees are not fully advised of the consequences of accepting a faculty position without an appointment.

To ensure UMDNJ honors its contractual commitments to you, on November 8, 2007, AAUP filed a grievance to ensure you receive the benefits and rights of the AAUP contract as of your hire date and has suggested to the University the following three (3) corrective options:

1. provide faculty and librarian new hires and transferees with the benefits of the AAUP contract from their first day of work or transfer date in the same way and under the same conditions UMDNJ affords it to appointed faculty;

2. provide faculty and librarian new hires and transferees with the benefits of the AAUP contract retroactive to their first day of work or transfer date upon appointment; or

3. not allow faculty and librarian new hires and transferees to work until and unless they are appointed.

It is AAUP’s hope and expectation that the University will take the appropriate action to correct this inequity and contractual violation.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this issue or believe you have been denied any benefits, please contact Robert Witkowski or Amy Reeder at 732-235-4196, me at 973-972-5875, or email AAUP at council@aaupumdnj.org.