Twelve to Ten Month Agreement Reached

As we have previously reported, URA-AFT leadership was advised in March that several departments had contacted University Human Resources about converting URA positions from 12 to 10 month appointments. While management does have the legal right to make such conversions, URA immediately requested to negotiate the process for making such conversions. We met for several sessions of negotiations and, on May 4, signed a memorandum of agreement which spells out important protections for our members.
Key provisions of this agreement:

A department may seek volunteers for conversion of 12 to 10 month positions.
If a unit has two or more staff members in the same job, any mandatory conversion of 12 to 10 month positions will protect the most senior staff member.
Management must give 45 calendar days’ prior notice when a position is converted from 12 to 10 month status.
Regular Type 1 employees cannot be made to work their job over the summer as Type 4’s.
Type 4 employees doing the same work as the type 1 will be discontinued before a 12 to 10 conversion of a Type 1 job.
Type 4 employees cannot be hired to take the place of a type 1 employee whose position is converted to 10 month.
If your co-worker’s position is converted to 10 months and yours is not, the supervisor must meet with you to insure that any transfer of duties does not exceed your job description.
If your job is converted back to 12 months from 10 months, you must be offered reinstatement to 12 months.
Many URA-AFT members have indicated that the 12 to 10 conversion can offer a viable method for protecting jobs while containing costs. The memorandum of agreement is NOT the same as “reopening our contract”, and does NOT mean we have discussed giving up any provisions of our contract. Please go to www.ura-aft.org to review the Agreement and the explanatory letter. For further details; bring your questions to the May 11 general membership meeting and May campus lunchtime meetings.

Full twelve to ten month agreement at http://www.ura-aft.org/downloads/12to10agreement.pdf
Benefits for ten month employees at http://www.ura-aft.org/downloads/10monthbenefits.pdf
Educational letter about twelve to ten month conversions at http://www.ura-aft.org/downloads/12to10educationalletter.pdf
Note on memorandum of agreement: The memorandum of agreement is NOT the same as “reopening our contract,” and does NOT mean we have discussed giving up any provisions of our contract. We have already negotiated on limited areas that the 2007-2011 contract did not address, for example, the March, 2008 agreement on holiday schedules for members who work in County offices.