The college is looking at ways to reduce expenses due to a much lower than anticipated enrollment (I know, broken record…). The college has said that Specialized Support Services (S3), the Titan Store and Food Services are the three departments being considered for potential cuts OR restructuring. Brian Kelly, Dennis Carr and Union Representatives met with S3 to discuss. S3 staff shared with us that President Hamilton has assured them that their department is not being cut. There will be more information about the future of S3, Food Services and the Titan store soon, but, as of now, nothing has been decided and we have been told that any action will happen in FY 19/20 (no sooner than July of 2019).
In any department experiencing cuts, the most likely impact will be to timesheet hourly employees due to the lay off process and “bumping rights” provided to contracted staff, but LCCEF leadership’s priority will be to prevent any employee from being laid off.
The college’s goal is to prevent layoffs and to prevent the need for contracted classified members to have to use their bumping rights. If your department has a meeting with a VP and HR, and they inform you that there may be cuts or department restructuring, and your position is targeted for elimination, there is an process that must be followed.
- If you were hired before May 2, 2008 you cannot be laid off (see Job Security, Appendix N of our current contract).
- If you were hired after May 2, 2008 and your position is targeted for elimination, then non-bargaining unit employees in your job family, such as Learn and Earn employees will be impacted first.
- After non-bargaining unit employees in your job family have all been laid off then comes hourly employees in your job family.
- Then, contracted employees on trial service.
If all hourly employees in a contracted employee position’s job family are gone and more cuts are necessary then you you would have the right to “bump” a contracted employee with less seniority within the same job family. This “bumping” process causes all kinds of headaches for the college and it is something they would like to avoid. What this means is they will work very hard to find homes for the affected employees before layoffs to contracted employees will happen. Sadly the same protections do not exist for our timesheet hourly employees. We strongly encourage our dedicated and hard working timesheet hourly employees to apply for posted contracted positions.