Excessing Rules = No-Layoff Provision

Jun 5, 2006 3:19 PM

At the May Delegate Assembly Randi mentioned that one of the things we gained in our new contract is that the excessing clause is a virtual no-layoff provision. Up until now we have downplayed this gain, waiting for the contractual language to be fully hammered out.

In many respects this provision is far better than any we previously had for teachers. Many members at the DA seemed to be unaware of this fact, as it so important we thought we should make it very clear here. The new provision provides for the following:

• When members are told that they are in excess, they have a contractual right to use the Open Market Transfer Plan to seek another position.
• If they are unsuccessful, or if they choose not to use the Open Market Transfer Plan, then their region’s administrators can send them to interview for a vacancy in their license area elsewhere in their current district (previously, the employer could send a member in excess if there were no vacancy in their district anywhere there was a vacancy in the entire city.) If no such vacancy exists, or if after the interview the principal opts not to select them, the region’s administrators can broaden the field by sending excessed members to interview for a vacancy in their license area anywhere in the region. Note: Members cannot be sent to interview outside the region. If a vacancy doesn’t exist in the region, or the interview does not lead to a job offer, the member is still in excess.
• Should this occur the region’s administrators are obliged to use excessed members as ATRs (Absent Teacher Reserve) in their home school, if at all possible, or at another school in their current district. As an ATR a member is assigned to one school and cannot be sent out of his or her current district. A teacher who is excessed to another school may request an opportunity to return to the school from which he/she was excessed if within a year a vacancy in his/her license area should occur in that school this is commonly referred to as the “right of return.”
• The D.O.E. tried to eliminate all excessing rights in contract negotiation. They used the problem of bumping as a springboard to argue in fact-finding that an excessed member should have 18 months to find a vacancy, and if unsuccessful, to be laid off.

The fact-finders rejected their position and instead, agreed with us to stop bumping and to maintain educators who are in excess in the D.O.E. employ.

Now, a person can remain as an ATR indefinitely while still seeking another position, and because these positions are not limited no one can be laid-off unless there is a true citywide layoff situation or major budgetary problems that require the DOE to cut back severely on staff. In such emergencies, the DOE must follow Ed. Law section 2588, which states that part-timers and regular subs must be let go first and if all vacancies have been filled then layoffs must follow a strict seniority pattern starting with the most junior person in the city.

• The DOE will no longer let principals take an excessed person off the school’s budget until that person has a job. This stops the wholesale excessing of personnel. But while this is a positive for many of members it may serve to retard some of the job acceptances in the open market system.

This new provision not only gives our members a no-layoff provision under ordinary circumstances but keeps them from being bumped or excessed all over the city.

If you want to stay in your district or superintendency, YOU CAN!