Faculty Rights Tip: Seven Weeks to File a Grievance Against CSU Management

Faculty wishing to file a grievance have seven weeks – totaling 49 calendar days – to file a grievance if we believe our workplace rights have been violated.

Article 10.4 allows faculty to file a grievance no later than 49 calendar days after the event giving rise to the grievance, or 49 days after you knew or reasonably should have known of the event leading to the grievance. If, for example, your campus has hired a brand-new lecturer to teach a course you are qualified to teach, the 49-day clock begins on the day you learn of a change in your working conditions.

While faculty encounter a variety of challenges, disputes, and interpersonal conflicts in our jobs, it is important to know that with regard to contractual grievances in which CFA represents a faculty member, the grievance is always filed against university management, and never against Unit 3 (faculty) employees, all of whom enjoy CFA’s duty of fair representation.

Our CFA Representation Policy, which is worth reading as a primer on our processes, states:

“Except in extraordinary cases, CFA will not participate in grievances involving intra-faculty disputes unless the dispute involves the exercise of authority granted by contract or Administrative delegation.”

For example, if your entitlement is not met in a given term due to an improper implementation of the preference for work article in the contract, even though your department chair may have built the course schedule, it is technically the dean (or their designee) who approves course schedules, and therefore your Article 12 grievance in that case would be against university management.

If you are having difficulties involving another faculty colleague, you may be able to seek advice and support from CFA representatives about how to address it outside the grievance process. For example, a CFA member or representative can accompany you to a meeting with an administrator, where you might request that management support a mediation process or other type of support. However, the grievance process is reserved for cases in which CSU management has violated faculty rights. 

Once you believe your contractual rights might have been violated, do not wait! Contact your campus representative immediately.

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

• Browse the faculty contract here.
• See an archive of Faculty Rights Tips.
• If you have questions about a faculty rights tip or would like to suggest a tip, please write us with the subject line “Faculty Rights Tip.”