Faculty Rights Tip: Should I File a Grievance?

Are you experiencing something in your working conditions that doesn’t feel quite right? Perhaps, like most faculty, you have not read our Collective Bargaining Agreement cover to cover, and you are just not sure if your rights are being violated. 

If you are wondering whether there is a remedy for your problem at work, it is imperative that you contact a leader from your campus CFA chapter such as your faculty rights chair or other members of your chapter leadership.

Under our new contract, you have 49 days to file a grievance if you believe your workplace rights have been violated.

Article 10.4 allows you 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 giving rise to the grievance. If, for example, you are informed your class size has increased, your reassigned units for supervising a program are being cut due to the budget crunch (and not due to a decrease in your responsibilities), or your entitlement is not being met, the 49 day clock begins on that day you learn of a change in your working conditions.

Sometimes faculty sit with a gut feeling that “something’s not right” for months or years. It may be your pay, your workload, or that you have been overlooked for classes you are qualified to teach that peers have been hired for who are lower in the preference for work order (Article 12.29) than you.

Instead of waiting and wondering, be proactive and get in touch with your chapter leaders. Ask them about your situation. All consultations are confidential, and solidarity is only a phone call or email away. Once 49 days have passed, getting a remedy through the contractual process becomes difficult.

If you believe – or even if you simply wonder if – your contractual rights might have been violated, do not wait! Contact your campus representative immediately, and use your personal, non-campus email address to do so in order to protect your confidentiality.

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.”