Faculty union, Temple meeting to address sick leave, contract confusions

The union is attempting to secure a full 10 days of sick leave as it meets with Temple while also resolving other contract confusions.

After ratifying their latest contract in October, TAUP is still working to reach a new sick leave agreement with university administration. | JACK LARSON / THE TEMPLE NEWS

Temple and the Temple Association of University Professionals, a union of full and part time faculty, librarians and academic professionals, are in talks regarding an improved sick leave policy, pay increase and job security concerns, following their recent contract agreement ratified Oct. 15, 2024. 

An improved sick leave policy was a key issue left at the table during previous negotiations after the union and the university could not come to terms on changing the policy.

The university’s current sick leave policy includes 10 paid sick days per year for full-time employees. However, TAUP members have said the university disciplines staff after the fifth day they use, which the union says can intimidate employees from using their sick days. 

This past semester, a group of TAUP members, alongside Temple Law Professors’ Collective Bargaining Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, wrote an open letter to President John Fry. 

“[The sick leave organizing group] wrote about the issues and asked them to consider changing the policies, which we think is punitive, bad for staff morale and resows distress between managers and employees,” said Josué Hurtado, coordinator of public services and outreach at Temple Libraries and a TAUP member.

The union hopes to work with the administration following Fry’s appointment to resolve the issue of sick leave. The October 2024 contract was agreed upon prior to Fry’s Nov. 1, 2024 start date.

Now, the university is reviewing TAUP’s sick leave request to decide if adjustments are needed. There has been one meeting between the sick leave group and the university, Hurtado said. 

“There are certain departments that I want to make sure still have the ability to manage attendance,” said Vice President of Human Resources Sharon Boyle. “So we’re just talking about how they apply the work rule, how they use it. Whether it’s a useful tool, whether or not it’s something that might need to be updated. We’re working with a group of managers on that now. TAUP also asked if we could talk to a group of employees and get their input.”

TAUP and other unions are waiting for additional meetings with HR and managers on the issue, Hurtado said. 

“We’re making efforts to grow that group of unions, who might be willing to join in this [sick leave] effort,” Hurtado said. “It’s definitely cross-union solidarity on this one topic.” 

Along with sick leave, the union is also working through other contract issues. Since the contract’s ratification in October, union leadership has initiated a contract enforcement process due to concerns surrounding pay increases and job security, The Temple News reported. 

On Dec. 11, TAUP claimed the university had not issued correct back pay or applied the $10,000 across-the-board salary increases agreed upon in negotiations. The union posted again to social media on Dec. 17, stating the expected raises had arrived.

However, Boyle said the promised raises were applied to the payroll of all faculty that qualify in November 2024.

Both sides met on Jan. 16 to address concerns surrounding the new contract. 

“Whenever there’s a new collective bargaining agreement, there are always little kinds of details, whether it’s things the parties didn’t think of when we were negotiating it, or language uncertainties that you need to talk through,” Boyle said. 

On Jan. 10, TAUP President Jeffrey Doshna wrote an open letter to the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and the Associate Director of the Intellectual Heritage program condemning recent “lay-offs” of adjunct faculty within CLA. 

Part-time adjuncts are hired on a semester-to-semester basis. According to the university’s guidelines for the appointment and formal evaluation of adjunct faculty, “No adjunct has a reasonable assurance for re-appointment until an appointment letter is issued by a hiring department.”

During the past year, the Intellectual Heritage department has contended with job security, an issue that was addressed in the recent five-year agreement. In February 2024, many IH adjunct professors were informed that fewer class sections will be available for adjunct faculty to teach. TAUP referenced the same issue in its letter.

TAUP also claimed the university’s enrollment concerns do not align with the recent increase in admissions and do not justify the “lay-offs.”

“We also know that the decision to cancel sections for Spring 2025 was in part due to late enrollments by returning and transfer students, and tied to issues of state funding transfers and financial holds,” Doshna wrote in the letter. “These temporary administrative policies should not result in termination of long-serving faculty and the resulting impact on students.”

Full-time faculty are given priority when class sections are made available. Any remaining sections after that are given to part-time adjuncts, Boyle said. Following the union’s latest contract, adjunct faculty will be eligible for multi-semester appointments depending on seniority. 

“I feel like we’ve said our piece,” Hurtado said. “[The administration] understands where we are right now and so I’m hoping it’s just understandable. It does take a while too, it’s a large institution and there’s a lot of stakeholders. We are definitely one of the stakeholders as well.”

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