School District Accused of Contract Violations by BCCE

The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) has been accused by the Berkeley Council of Classified Employees (BCCE) of contract violations, including the hiring of substitutes to fill long-term positions, the withholding of information about BCCE members, and other offenses.

The BCCE, a union of about 450 BUSD workers in the Office/Technical and Instructional Assistant/Paraprofessional Units, has accused the school district of hiring employees whose benefits are withheld because they have been hired as substitutes, and withholding information about the employees to the union.

Tim Donnelly, the secretary of BCCE, published a reader commentary in the Berkeley Daily Planet in late September, outlining the union’s grievances. The decision to submit the commentary was made at the executive level of the BCCE, and they plan to follow up on the published statements in the coming months. The grieviences listed include the hiring of substitutes for extended periods of time to bypass union regulations, the withholding of statistical evidence for the union to build its legal case, and a reworking of the BUSD special education system that allegedy hurts teaching practices. Donnelly has labelled the school district an “anti-worker administration” and says that the BCCE turned to the media after what he considered long periods of “stalling” and “stonewalling” by the administration that made negotiations very difficult.

The jobs in question are classified positions in the district, or jobs that don’t require teaching credentials. Many of these positions are covered by the BCCE; however, the district has been filling them with temporary workers that are not eligible for union coverage. According to Donnelly, these workers do not receive benefits that usually come with these long-term positions. Many of these workers are obtained through private contractors, a method that the BCCE has called “illegal” and a “clear violation of [the BCCE] contract with BUSD”.

“Substitutes are paid a lower wage and not getting benefits; they’re sort of under the radar,” Donnelly explained. “It’s cheaper [for the district]. They don’t have to go through the hassle of hiring full-time staff and paying them full-time wages with benefits.”

To aid in their various responsibilities, the labor code of the BCCE grants them the right “to material that will enable it to fulfill its role as the sole bargaining agent (Sec 4.1.3).” Lack of access to information has been cited by the BCCE as another violation of its contract, and an impediment to the building of its cases against the district.

BUSD Public Information Officer Mark Coplan declined to comment, saying that negotiations between employer and union are private matters. “Negotiations are held behind closed doors,” Coplan explained. “There’s probably no one in the district who’s involved in negotiations who would be able to discuss them.”

Photos:

• Old City Hall (pc Hannah Bloom)