Announcement to FFECC Membership on HRA MOU and Incentive agreement MOU
Dear fellow FFECC members,
The Faculty Federation leadership has agreed to two Memorandums of Understanding with the College (the MOU is available on the MEMBERS section of the website).
First, the following is a summary of the Incentive Agreement between the FFECC and the College:
Eligibility for FFECC members is as follows:
The college shall offer a Retirement Incentive to full time members of the FFECC, employed at ECC with no less than 15 years of service, whose age and years of service combine to equal seventy (70) or more.
The value of the incentive shall be as follows:
Forty percent (40%) of the employee’s 2019-2020 base contractual salary for employees with fifteen (15) to twenty (20) years of service.
Forty-five percent (45%) of the employee’s 2019-2020 salary for employees with twenty-one (21) to twenty-five (25) years of service.
Fifty percent (50%) of the employees 2019-2020 salary for employees with twenty-six (26) or more years of service,
Time frame for eligible FFECC members to apply for the incentive
Eligible employees must apply by close of business on May 29, 2020 by 4pm. Once notification is received from eligible employees an analysis will be performed by the college to determine if there are enough eligible funds to grant all Retirement Incentive requests.
College to review applicants and rank applicants
Such review will be completed no later than June 15, 2020.
If there are more applicants than can be funded with available incentive, the incentive will be awarded to those with the most years of continuous full-time service at the College. Ties in continuous years of full-time service between FFECC members will be decided by total years of continuous service within the bargaining unit at the college including part time service.
The total available funds for retirement incentives will be distributed as follows: 60% to FFECC members. If FFECC or other participating bargaining units do not exhaust its allocated funds, then the unused amounts will be reallocated to members of other participating bargaining units. At the discretion of the Board of Trustees, additional funds may be added to the total amount of the retirement incentive. If additional money is added to the cap referenced herein, notice will be provided to the FFECC President, once the analysis referenced above is complete.
The College will immediately notify the FFECC president and each FFECC member that applied for the incentive whether the incentive request can be honored.
Eligible Employee to confirm participation which will be irrevocable
An employee deemed eligible for the incentive through this process will have until June 30, 2020 to confirm their acceptance of the early Retirement Incentive, at which time such notice will be deemed irrevocable. Participating FFECC members will be required to complete their Spring teaching/work schedule and their retirement date will be August 14, 2020. If the participating bargaining units do not exhaust the total sum allocated for early Retirement Incentive and if the funds are still available from the County ( which is at the County’s discretion) there will be a second round of Retirement Incentives for FFECC members retiring after the end of Fall semester 2020, utilizing the unused portion of the total allocation per the same allocation as the first round.
If the funds are not available, there will not be a second round of Retirement incentives.
Incentive pay out options
The early Retirement Incentive will, at the employee’s option, be placed into the employee’s 403B Retirement Account and/or the eligible 457 Deferred Compensation Account or will be paid directly to the employee. The College and FFECC will work together to establish a comprehensive educational process so that potential retirees have a full and thorough understanding of the financial impact of the incentive; The provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement remain unchanged by this agreement.
College and FFECC to assess vacancies with preferential consideration
The College and FFECC agree to meet as soon as possible upon notice of an individual’s retirement or by June 30, 2020, to assess the vacancies that will result from the Retirement Incentive in the context of factors such as enrollment, critical services, and the like ,to recommend which positions should be filled. When all credentials and other qualifications of applicants are equal, and subject to the current Affirmative Action Policy and non-discrimination statement of the college, preferential consideration will be given to the most senior part-time NTP / NTTP or part-time adjunct who applies to a FFECC position left vacant due to this Retirement Incentive that the College has determined to fill from the recommendations of the previous paragraph. Positions that the College has determined to fill will post internally for five (5) business days.
Incentive replacement process
At that time, the Appointments Committee of the appropriate unit of the College, in consultation with the Vice President of Human Resources, will make a determination as to whether the candidate pool from the internal posting is adequate and whether interviews of the internal candidates are necessary. At that time, if needed, the job opening may be posted externally. Throughout this process, diversity of faculty/staff will be a consideration. Preferential consideration is not a guarantee of hiring. All final hiring decisions will require approval by the College President, or his designee, per the CBA. This provision will last for one semester after the retirement incentive deadline through the end of the Fall 2020 semester.
Application Information: Tentative Fall 2020
Should the county approve and should there be money still available, eligible employees must apply by close of business on September 4, 2020 by 4pm. Once eligible employees have submitted their application an analysis will be performed by the College to determine if there are enough eligible funds to grant all Retirement Incentive requests. Such review will be completed no later than October 16, 2020. Once the analysis referenced above is complete, the College will immediately notify the FFECC president and each FFECC member that applied for the incentive whether the incentive request can be honored; an employee deemed eligible for the incentive through this process will have until November 6, 2020 to confirm their acceptance of the early Retirement Incentive at which time such notice will be deemed irrevocable. Participating FFECC members will be required to complete their spring teaching/work schedule and their retirement date will be December 23, 2020.
The above is not yet approved, with money not yet available; plan is tentative.
Next, the following is a summary regarding an extension of the maximum for the HRA conversion to 8/31/2021
Article 63, establishes compensation for unused Sick Leave for individuals hired prior to the ratification of the 2009-2020 agreement. This agreement established a cap on such benefits for eligible individuals retiring on or after August 31, 2020. The FFECC and College are concerned about the consequences of maintaining the deadline established therein. We have discussed the issue and reached an agreement to change the date on which the cap will go into effect and wish to set forth the agreement in writing
1. Notwithstanding the current language in Article 63 (13) the $39,000 cap on the maximum value of the sick hours shall not be in effect until August 31, 2021 for eligible employees with a Sick Leave balance valued above $39,000 as of April 1, 2020.
2. Employees that retire before August 31, 2021 who (a) are eligible for sick hour compensation under Article 63(13) and (b) are at the current cap of $60,0000 as of April 1, 2020 (c) receive the maximum compensation for accrued sick hours equal to $60,000.
3. Employees that retire before August 31, 2021 who (a) are eligible for sick hour compensation under Article 63(13) and (b) are below the current $60,000 cap but above the new $39,000 cap in accrued sick hours calculated as of April 1, 2020 (c ) receive the maximum compensation for accrued sick hours equal to the current accrued sick hours calculated as of April 1, 2020.
4. Employees who retire on or after August 31, 2020 who (a) are eligible for sick hour compensation under Article 63(13) and (b) have an accrued sick leave balance under $39,000 as of April 1, 2020 ( c) receive the maximum value of the sick hours equal to $39,000 and pursuant to the provisions of Article 63(13).
5. All other requirements and limitations stated in Article 63(13) remain in full force and effect. All other provisions of the collective bargaining agreement shall continue in full force and effect.
6. The terms of this agreement do not supersede any other provisions of the FFECC CBA and are enforceable through the contractual grievance and arbitration provisions of the FFECC CBA.
7. This agreement does not preclude either party from further negotiating the terms and conditions of Article 63(13) in the future.
In Solidarity,
The FFECC leadership team:
Andrew Sako, President sakoad@ecc.edu 851-1026 Patricia Kaiser, VP City kaiser@ecc.edu 270-5639 Michael Kozlowski, VP North kozlowski@ecc.edu 851-1537
James Ruggiero, VP South ruggiero@ecc.edu 851-1770 Michael Delaney, Grievance Chair delaney@ecc.edu 270-5332
Jacqui Bollinger, Secretary bollinger@ecc.edu 270-2981
