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MnSCU-IFO Master Agreement 1995-1997
ARTICLE 23 - Retrenchment
Section A. Retrenchment. A retrenchment is the layoff of tenured or probationary faculty members due to System or university budget reductions, budget reallocations, expenditure freezes, or unfunded increases in operating costs, resulting from action by either the Legislature, the Governor, or MnSCU, or program changes, or enrollment shifts, or legislative mandate.
The President shall meet and confer with the Association, in accordance with the provisions of Article 6, at the time the President first considers retrenchment. In connection with such duty to meet and confer, the President shall give the reason(s) for considering retrenchment and shall provide information of anticipated attrition, and statistics and financial data having a bearing on any such retrenchment. The President shall consult with the Chancellor before the issuance of layoff notices.
Section B. Retrenchment Procedure.
Subd. 1. Attrition. Whenever possible, attrition due to retirement, resignation, early separation, or death should be used to avoid the necessity for layoff.
Subd. 2. Retraining. Retraining of present faculty shall be considered by the President to avoid the necessity for layoff.
Subd. 3. Layoff. Upon determination by the President that attrition and retraining will not accomplish the reduction, then layoffs may be instituted. After meeting and conferring with the Association pursuant to Section A above, the President shall determine the particular department or program in which personnel reductions ought to be made. Such reductions shall then be accomplished in the following order.
a. Adjunct, community faculty, fixed term, and non-tenure track, without priority, based upon programmatic needs.
b. Probationary
c. Tenured faculty in the affected department shall be laid off in inverse order as described in Article 29 hereof. However, in departments or programs where positions are financed by monies from an outside jurisdiction or agency and are occupied by fixed-term or probationary faculty, such faculty may continue to hold such positions in reduced departments or programs unless there are tenured faculty members qualified to fill such positions as determined by the President.
A tenured faculty member who has at least twenty (20) years of service within the Minnesota State Universities, shall remain available for assignment and shall not be laid off. For those tenured faculty with at least twenty (20) years of service who have received notice that their positions is being eliminated, the following options will be provided.
1. The President/designee may reassign the faculty member to other appropriate duties within the university.
2. If the President/designee determines reassignment is not available without retraining, within six months of initial notice, the faculty member and the President/designee shall develop a mutually agreed upon retraining program, to be paid by the university, which meets the programmatic needs of the university. The completed plan will include timelines for completion of retraining. The President will review the approved plan with the receiving department, and in accordance with Article 20, the department's role is limited to that of providing recommendations only.
3. If the President /designee and the faculty member cannot develop a mutually agreeable retraining plan, the faculty member's employment will terminate three (3) years from the date of initial notice. During this period, appropriate duties will be assigned by the Employer. At the end of this period, the faculty member will receive the maximum benefits contained in Article 16, Article 16, Section D., Subd. 2. if not otherwise qualified. With this option, there shall be no layoff or recall rights.
d. If two (2) or more faculty members have equal seniority, then those with greater length of tenured service shall have priority for retention.
Should faculty members still be equal in seniority, then those with greater length of total service in the university shall have priority in retention. Beyond this, the decision of which person to retain will be made on the basis of programmatic needs of the university as determined by the President.
Subd. 4. Advanced Notice. Notice of layoff under the provisions of this Article for non-tenured faculty members shall be furnished in accordance with Article 25. Tenured faculty members to be laid off under the provisions of this Article shall be provided notice of layoff no later than the twentieth (20th) class day of the fall term to be effective on the last day of the next spring term. Meet and confer to discuss layoffs shall be scheduled prior to the date of the layoff notice.
Subd. 5. Sabbatical Leave. If a faculty member had been scheduled for a sabbatical leave he/she shall not be deprived of his/her sabbatical leave because he/she is subject to being laid off.
Subd. 6. Retraining.
a. The President will consider and may approve a training leave, in accordance with Article 17, Section H, for a faculty member who has received a notice of layoff. The retraining leave would occur during the faculty member's terminal year and provide the faculty member with an opportunity to become qualified for a position in a related or allied discipline. The President's decision shall not be grievable.
b. As an alternative, but not in addition to the retraining leave, the President may offer a sabbatical leave to a faculty member for the purpose of retraining in a field for which employment is available at the faculty member's university. This sabbatical would occur during the faculty member's terminal year. The President's decision to offer or not to offer the sabbatical leave shall not be grievable.
Section C. Catastrophic Retrenchment. If a retrenchment within a university involves layoff notice being given to more than fifteen percent (15%) of the tenured faculty in an academic year such tenured faculty shall be entitled to reemployment rights for three (3) years with the State Universities following the same procedure used for recall in Section G.
Section D. Rights. Tenured faculty members laid off in accordance with this Article shall have reassignment rights or, as a result of Section C above, recall rights for three (3) years following the effective date of their layoff.
Subd. 1. Retrenchment List. A current list of faculty members who possess reassignment and recall rights, under Section C, will be maintained by the MnSCU office. Each university will notify the System office whenever a tenured faculty member is given notice of retrenchment. The System office will send an updated list to each of the universities whenever it receives such notice.
Subd. 2. Notices of Vacancies. All tenured faculty members who have received a notice of retrenchment shall notify the System office of up to three academic areas in which they may be qualified to serve. The choice of areas shall be from the list contained in Appendix B of this Agreement. Subsequently, they shall receive copies of all vacancy notices for faculty positions, in departments or programs in those academic areas, which will be included in the IFO unit when filled unless they request in writing not to receive them. This notification of academic areas can be updated annually, with the possibility of adding one area, within fifteen (15) days of the anniversary of his/her notice of retrenchment.
Included with the initial mailing of vacancy notices will be a letter describing the reassignment process and a form to use to notify the System office of a faculty member's desire to exercise his/her right of consideration for a specific position
Vacancy notices for probationary positions in chosen academic areas shall be sent at least three (3) weeks prior to disseminating them within the MnSCU or in local or national publications. Vacancy notices of fixed-term and adjunct positions shall be sent by the university no later than the same day that they are disseminated within the MnSCU and before such notices are disseminated in local or national publications.
In addition, faculty members with reassignment rights shall be mailed vacancy notices by the university for faculty positions in the IFO unit outside of their chosen academic areas at the time that they are disseminated within the MnSCU.
Section E. Reassignment. Tenured faculty members notified of layoff in accordance with this Article may exercise their reassignment rights within the Minnesota State Universities as follows.
1. The faculty member shall have three (3) calendar weeks from the date the notice of vacancy was mailed to contact the university and indicate his/her interest in the position and to forward the application materials requested in the notice to the Academic Vice President or designee of the university involved. When the credentials of the faculty member have been received, the Vice President or designee shall meet with the department where the vacancy exists and insure that the department is aware of and understands all the previsions of this Section prior to considering reassignment requests.
2. The department involved shall make telephone contact with the faculty member and invite him/her to visit the campus for an informational interview. At the time of the visit, he/she shall also be afforded an interview with the President or appropriate Vice President. The university shall be responsible for travel and related expenses from the faculty member's place of residence if it is within the State of Minnesota or within fifty miles of the Minnesota border.
The faculty member will be responsible for travel and related expenses from a place of residence outside the state of Minnesota. The department shall make a written recommendation to the President concerning the credentials of the candidate. If the recommendation from the department is negative, the faculty member shall be afforded a telephone call with the President before the President determines whether he/she is qualified to fill the vacancy.
3. After consulting with the department, the President shall determine whether the faculty member is qualified to fill the vacant position.. In evaluating the faculty member, neither the President nor the department will compare him/her with any actual, hypothetical, or ideal applicant, and will take no notice of applications and credentials of other candidates until a decision has been reached regarding the faculty member seeking reassignment.
4. The faculty member must be awarded the position if he/she has sufficient ability, i.e., is competent to perform the duties of the position as described in the notice of vacancy.
5. If the vacant position is temporary or less than full-time, the qualified faculty member may accept or refuse the position without in any way altering or affecting his/her rights as established in this Article.
6. If the President determines that a faculty member seeking reassignment does not possess sufficient ability to fill the position, he/she shall send the faculty member a written statement identifying the qualifications stated in the notice of vacancy that he/she does not possess. The System office shall be informed so that the notice of vacancy can be mailed and the search resumed in accordance with the procedures of Article 21, Section A.
7. If two (2) or more faculty members are deemed qualified for reassignment, the vacant position shall be awarded to the faculty member with greater seniority. If two or more faculty members have equal seniority, the vacant position will be awarded to the one with the greater length of tenured service in the Minnesota State University. If two (2) or more faculty members have equal seniority and tenured service, the vacant position will be awarded to the one with greater length of total service in the Minnesota State Universities. If two (2) or more faculty members have equal seniority and equal length of tenured and total service, the President shall determine which faculty member shall be awarded the vacant position.
8. If no faculty member on the reassignment list responds to the notice of vacancy during the three (3) week open period, the university may resume the search in accordance with the procedures of Article 21, Section A.
9. Persons offered reemployment must accept such offer within fifteen (15) calendar days after such offer, such acceptance to take effect on a date specified by the President which will not require a faculty member to be at work earlier than the beginning of the academic quarter or semester, whichever is applicable, following the date such offer was made or thirty (30) days, whichever is later. Such a faculty member shall retain all accrued seniority in the Minnesota State Universities, including credit for time in layoff status, but shall for purposes of this Article begin a new accumulation of seniority within the new department or program if in another state university.
10. Persons who decline such offers of reemployment waive all rights of reassignment as established in this Article and shall have their names removed from the reassignment list.
11. All reassignment rights established herein shall expire at the conclusion of three (3) years (thirty-six (36) months) from the effective date of the faculty member's layoff or upon reassignment to a full-time tenured position in the bargaining unit.
Section F. Recall. Tenured faculty members laid-off in accordance with this Article shall have all recall rights and rehiring preference in the same or similar position in the same department or program from which the faculty member was laid off. The following provisions shall apply.
1. When a vacant position is filled, laid-off faculty members who are eligible for the position shall be offered reemployment in inverse order of their layoff from the System. In the event that two (2) or more faculty members were laid off at the same time, then that person with the greater seniority shall have priority for recall. If the vacant position is temporary or less than full-time, the laid-off faculty who are eligible shall be offered the position, but their accepting or declining the offer shall not jeopardize their recall rights as established in this Article.
2. Persons offered reemployment must accept such offer within fifteen (15) days after such offer, such acceptance to take effect on a date specified by the President which will not require a faculty member to be at work earlier than the beginning of the academic quarter or semester, whichever is applicable, following the date such offer was made or thirty (30) days, whichever is later.
3. Persons who decline such offers of reemployment waive all rights of recall as established in this Article and shall have their names removed from the recall list.
4. All recall rights established herein shall expire at the conclusion of three (3) years (thirty-six (36) months) from the effective date of the faculty member's layoff.
Section G. Recalled/Reassigned Faculty.
1. Faculty members who are recalled/reassigned in accordance with this Article and return to employment in the System shall be reemployed at their former academic rank with no reduction in their former salary schedule position.
In addition, they shall retain all unused sick leave accumulation not used in the calculation of severance pay at the time of their layoff as well as their previously earned tenure rights and sabbatical leave rights. If the position to which a faculty member is recalled is within the same seniority unit from which he/she was laid-off, then all previous seniority credit will be restored.
2. A list of all faculty members laid-off within the prior three (3) year period shall be maintained by the Employer and distributed to each university and the IFO.
3. Laid-off faculty shall be considered to be in an unrequested leave category. After twelve (12) months of Employer paid insurance benefits expire (Article 14, Section C., Subd. 2. (a), the laid-off employee shall have the right to continue at his/her own expense his/her full insurance benefits at the group rate for an additional thirty (30) months.
Section H. Outplacement Service. The MnSCU after consulting with the IFO, shall select an out placement consultant and provide such services to faculty members who are given notice of layoff and who request the service.
Section I. Grievance Procedure. A layoff due to retrenchment shall not be considered a non-renewal of appointment or a dismissal for cause, and the President's decision to retrench shall not be subject to the grievance procedure.