Title: An act relating to faculty salary increments for community and technical colleges.

Brief Description: Providing a specific funding mechanism for making community and technical college faculty salary increment awards.

Sponsors: Senators Jacobsen, Poulsen and Kline.

Brief History:

Committee Activity: Labor, Commerce, Research & Development: 2/21/05.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON LABOR, COMMERCE, RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Staff: Alison Mendiola (786-7483)

Background: Each biennium, the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) makes a budget request for funds to pay for faculty increments. The funds the Legislature appropriates to SBCTC for faculty increments is then allotted to the college. The colleges, in turn, allot it based upon local collective bargaining agreements. For K-12, the funds to pay for salary increments is automatic each biennium.

Summary of Bill: Every biennium, SBCTC must submit, in its biennial budget request, an amount which is sufficient to cover the annual cost of salary increments taking into account the faculty turnover savings. The annual cost of salary increments is not to exceed 3 percent of the faculty salary base.

SBCTC is to convene a task force to advise the SBCTC on guidelines for the fair and equitable distribution of increment funds to both part-time and full-time faculty. The task force is comprised of representatives from SBCTC, the presidents' organization, the trustees' organization, the Washington part-time faculty association and the faculties' organization.

The boards of trustees for the community and technical colleges must use the collective bargaining process to develop local agreements to award part-time faculty increments. The boards must use the following principles in developing these agreements: the part-time faculty increments must be equitable and comparable to full-time faculty salary schedules; the part-time faculty member's prior teaching experience must be counted in placing him or her in the appropriate increment when he or she is initially hired; the faculty member's experience at other higher education institutions must be counted in the increment scale; faculty must be placed on any new increment scale and cannot earn a salary that is lower than their current one; and the incremental steps for part-time and full-time faculty must be comparable.

The colleges must implement their increment scales within one year of the effective date of the section. Salary increments awarded to part-time faculty are retroactive to the fall of 2005.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Available.

Committee/Commission/Task Force Created: Yes.

Effective Date: Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For: (2005) Part-time faculty do full time work for half the pay. The Legislature should fund equal pay for equal work. Part time faculty are hired in overwhelming numbers. 86 percent of open faculty positions are filled by part time faculty. Although the SBCTC has requested sufficient funds to pay for increments, in the last several years, the Legislature has funded less than 33 percent of those requests.

Testimony Against: (2005) None.

Testimony Other: (2005) Certain portions of the bill, section 3 for example, are best left to local collective bargaining.

Who Testified: (2005) PRO: Keith Hoeller, Washington Part-time Faculty Association (WPTFA); Doug Collins, WPTFA; Dana Rush, WPTFA.

OTHER (2005): Chris Reykdal and John Buesenberg, State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.