Faculty Rights Tip: You Have the Right to Adequate Restrooms and Lactation Spaces on Campus

Do you know where to find gender-inclusive restroom facilities on your campus?

Do you know where safe and clean lactation rooms exist on your campus?

Article 37 of our 2022-25 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) requires that the CSU:

• Provide these spaces;
• Publicize their locations “through searchable, up-to-date, web-based information;” and
• Respond to any CFA reports of inadequate facilities within 60 days with a plan to remedy the deficiency or explain why the CSU asserts that the existing facilities are adequate.

These are rights we all enjoy through both the California Labor Code and our CBA.

In particular, Article 37.11, which secures our right to lactation spaces, states:

“CSU agrees to provide lactation spaces consistent with California Labor Code Section 1031.  The CSU shall make the locations of all lactation spaces on campus known to the campus community through searchable, up-to-date, web-based information. Upon request, the campus human resources office shall inform faculty unit employees where the nearest lactation space is located.  If CFA bargaining unit employees are unable to access adequate lactation spaces, CFA or a bargaining unit employee may notify Campus Human Resources. If CFA reports such an issue, CSU should inform CFA within sixty (60) days of its plans for addressing the issue or an explanation for why it believes adequate lactation spaces are already being provided.”

Article 37.12, which secures our right to gender inclusive restrooms and other facilities, states:

“The CSU shall make the locations of all gender-inclusive facilities on campus known to the campus community through searchable, up-to-date, web-based information. If CFA bargaining unit employees have inadequate access to convenient gender-inclusive restrooms, CFA or a bargaining unit employee may notify Campus Human Resources. If CFA reports such an issue, within sixty (60) days, CSU should inform CFA of either its plans to add a gender-inclusive restroom in the reported area or explain why such an addition is not feasible.”

If you don’t know where to find these spaces on your campuses, contact your CFA chapter leaders, including your faculty rights representative, here. Your chapter may be able to issue an information request about where this information is located on the campus website, and/or request that it be made available on a website, if it is not already adequately publicized.

Want to learn more? Become active with your local CFA chapter Faculty Rights team. Find your representative here.

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