In the wake of conflicts over employee salaries which occurred last semester, Foothill-De Anza Community College officials announced a temporary agreement with its largest union over pay raises for the 2018-2019 school year. Members of the union still need to ratify the settlement and the Foothill-De Anza board of trustees still need approve it, however it’s expected to receive support from both parties.
The settlement comes following a month-long protest by the union Faculty Association – which includes hundreds of full-time and part-time teachers and other staff members – over the institutions reluctance to raise employees’ salaries in May by 1.56 percent. The agreement gives the Faculty Association members a tentative raise of five percent and expires in June 2019.
Kevin McElroy, the California-based Community College district’s vice chancellor of business services, told the Voice that the pay raise would cost the district around $8 million.
The reason for the delay in negotiations, McElroy said, was strictly related to touch-and-go changes to the way California plans to fund community colleges beginning in 2018.
“In my 34 years in the profession, this is probably the most ambiguous and unusual budget language that I’ve ever seen,” McElroy said. “And it’s understandable — they’re trying to implement a brand new performance-based funding formula.”
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