Background: working for the CSU (California State University) as a limited-term employee who is 100% funded by NSF grant funds (read: federal National Science Foundation money – not California state money), things get weird because the CSU unions negotiated for furloughs instead of layoffs to allow the CSU to cut $200+ million from their 2009-2010 budget. I can’t fault the unions for that. Everybody gets to keep their job but they get a 10% reduction in pay and a 10% reduction in work hours. Although it does give the CSU admin lots of wiggle room to try to deliver the same services to students (who all still expect to be able to register and get into all the courses they need to graduate in a 4-year program) for less cost. Layoffs may have made it much clearer that there is no one to teach that class – not just 10% less of a person. But I digress.
Since I’m federally funded (benefits and all), the point has been successfully impressed upon the CSU that they may not cut my pay, nor my hours. So, I’m still at 100% of what I was hired to do. Except that the CSU wants to make the furlough days observed campus-wide (each of 23 campuses in CSU gets to arrange their schedule) so that they can gain further cost reductions by “shutting down” whole buildings. So, I am not allowed to come to work on days when the campus is “closed”. But I’m to maintain my 40-hour work week. It gets curiouser and curiouser…
Most of the furlough-day / campus-closure days are a Friday every now and then (typically 2 a month). On those weeks when there’s a Friday furlough day, I have agreed to work 4 days of 10 hours each (Monday – Thursday), so that I get my 40 hours of federally funded work in. I’m fine with this. It’s a hassle, but I’m fine. Having a 3-day weekend come up more often is great, but since I get nothing done in my personal life during the 4 days, I find I usually spend most of Friday catching up on the stuff I’d do in the evenings during the week. But, again, I digress…
The deal got started on this furlough thing a bit late in the fiscal year and the agreement for 24 furlough days to be taken in the 2009-2010 fiscal year didn’t get around to being scheduled until September – three months into the fiscal year. So they have to sort of cram in a few extra furlough days in some months so that by the end of June 2010, they’ve all had their 24 furlough days. (in case you’re wondering… they’re doing the same trick with paychecks – docking 10% of a full years pay over 10 months) As part of this catchup process – they scheduled furlough days for spring break: April 5 – 9. Which makes sense, for what they’re trying to accomplish. But now the wrinkle.
What do I do when they’ve scheduled furlough days – and closed the campus – for a whole week?…. ready?
…. they tell me that I must take vacation days.
I accrue vacation time as a benefit at the rate of ~6.6 hours per month (that’s 10 days per year, i.e. two weeks). They are now telling me that I have no choice but to take 50% of my annual vacation allotment in the week of April 5-9.
I look at my accrued time worksheet and I see 152 hours of sick time. I’m not permitted to take any of that. Period. Non-negotiable. I’m not permitted to take leave-without-pay – at least not until I have no vacation or sick time accrued. Period. Non-negotiable.
I’m pissed.
(The only other option offered is to work somewhere else during that week. Which, due to the nature of the work, I cannot do.)