Subject: Collective letter on attendance tracking

Dear EVC Lori Kletzer,        

On May 14, 2024, faculty on our campus received an email from you with the subject heading: “Continuity of Instruction and Research.” In your message, you state that faculty are obligated to “accurately track attendance and approve or reject absence submissions by graduate student employees in the campus time and attendance system during the strike.” We are writing to clarify our collective position on this matter, as it is the subject of an open and unresolved dispute between all three instructional/research bargaining units (SCFA, UC-AFT, and UAW 4811) and management on our campus.

Put simply, we understand attendance tracking to be a new requirement that has been unilaterally imposed on faculty and grads alike in the wake of the 2022 UAW strike, one that violates our collective bargaining agreements, exposes the University to unfair labor practice charges and grievances, and ultimately serves no pedagogical or instructional purpose.

Prior to last year, teaching assistants and researchers were never expected to submit a timesheet. As exempt employees, they receive a monthly salary which accounts for paid leave. Currently, failure to submit a timesheet has not resulted in any disciplinary measures. To impose discipline now, in the midst of a labor action, risks violating the rights of those workers engaged in it. Moreover, the new guidelines announced in your May 14 message contain several additional unilateral changes in the leave reporting system. Such changes require that you notice or bargain with our units.

It is important to note that both SCFA and UC-AFT have formally protested this newly implemented requirement. For lecturers, the requirement violates Article 1 of the Unit 18 contract which defines lecturers as “non-supervisory” and Article 24, insofar as it imposes new, uncompensated administrative duties on instructors. In February of this year, UC-AFT filed a grievance over this matter, which has yet to be resolved. Similarly, SCFA has asked to bargain with the administration on this issue on the grounds that tracking and affirmatively reporting on other workers’ presence/absence when they do not submit timesheets would be a significant increase in workload beyond the original request that faculty confirm the accuracy of reported leaves and may also be impossible for faculty to comply with.

As instructors of record and principal investigators, faculty take seriously our responsibility for ensuring that course objectives are met and research is completed in a manner consistent with federal reporting guidelines. Occasionally, this may require us to make pedagogical interventions with our teaching assistants and researchers. However, this kind of mentorship is distinct from the managerial imperative to “align pay with work.” Indeed, our ability to maintain collaborative relationships with our teaching assistants and researchers requires that they not see us simply as managers of their labor.

To conclude, it is our position that faculty who supervise TAs and researchers should feel under no obligation to report on their activity via UCSC timesheets. Accordingly, we expect that going forward, you will drop this from your messaging to faculty.

Signed,

UC-AFT Local 1474 Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz Faculty Association

UAW 4811 Santa Cruz