Our union has joined other unions in the Coalition of Rutgers Unions to propose negotiations over management’s declaration of a fiscal emergency.
We have four priority demands: 1) funding extensions for graduate workers; 2) a guarantee of no layoffs through July 2022; 3) PTL reappointments returned to Fall 2019 levels by Fall 2021; and 4) scheduling payment of deferred raises.
In return, we are proposing a work-sharing arrangement under which our members would accept a weekly half-day furlough through March 15, saving Rutgers well over $10 million. The majority of our members would, thanks to the federal unemployment supplement passed in the recent COVID relief bill, maintain their full income if they apply for unemployment. We are also prepared to accept a deferral of our canceled raise, due last July, for the rest of the school year.
We are again uniting with our sibling unions in the Coalition and using our power to fight for all Rutgers workers, particularly those who are more vulnerable to further cuts and layoffs. We’ve put together answers to some of your questions about this proposal, though bear in mind that we are continually updating them based on new information. Please email us at aaup@rutgersaaup.org if you have a question that isn’t taken up here.
What is work-sharing?
Under a work-sharing program, employees work reduced hours and are paid less by their employer proportionate to this furlough time, but the difference is made up through government unemployment benefits. Under New Jersey law, we can get unemployment insurance for 80 percent of our pay for furloughed time, up to a cap of $731 per week. The federal unemployment supplement of $300 a week would make up the difference for the large majority of our members.
Rutgers would save well over $10 million in payroll costs through mid-March (when the federal unemployment booster is set to expire). All members earning up to around $193,000 a year would be able to fully replace their income. In fact, those earning less than $100,000 would see a significant boost in their paycheck.
Around 12 percent of full-time faculty make more each week than the $300-a-week federal supplement would fully cover. Most of these faculty would lose only a few percentage points of their weekly income during the weeks of work-sharing. But they would be sacrificing part of their salary to support lower-paid, more vulnerable workers and to get the university to implement our other key priorities, like funding extensions for graduate students.
The university has an online Shared Work Furlough Gross Income Calculator for non-aligned (non-union) employees to estimate the impact of the furloughs imposed on them since the summer. You can use the calculator to see what your paycheck will look like if our proposal is accepted by the administration. For “Current Furloughed Days Per Week,” enter “0.5.”
We would only consider participating in work-sharing while the federal relief program to supplement unemployment is in place. If Congress and the Biden administration extend it in some form, we would consider extending our offer, and we’d likely to spread the furloughed days over a longer period of time.
What is different about our proposal today compared to last spring?
The main difference is that our current proposal is smaller and simplified. We are proposing that our members all take the same furlough of one half day per week through mid-March. Also, because of agreements made with management since last spring, many unions in the Coalition can’t join us this time—though those putting forward this proposal are the largest in the Coalition.
Management rejected work-sharing last spring. Why should we think they’ll agree now?
There’s no guarantee, of course, but the negotiations last spring took place in the last days of the Barchi administration. President Jonathan Holloway has said he wants a better relationship with unions and to protect our “beloved community.” His actions haven’t yet matched his words, but we want to give him this opportunity to steer a different course.
Management can’t force us to accept furloughs. So why should we offer to furlough?
We would only accept furloughs under a work-sharing arrangement if management agrees to conditions that protect workers who are more vulnerable than us. Within our own union, TA/GAs are in desperate need of funding extensions. Well over 1,000 union members have been laid off by Rutgers since the pandemic began. These layoffs have hit unions representing the lowest-paid, most isolated, and least protected workers.
We want to use our union’s power to fight for all Rutgers workers. By proposing work-sharing, we are fighting for the Rutgers employees who will be hit harder than full-time faculty. We are operating on the basis of the old labor movement slogan: An injury to one is an injury to all.
Would the 10 percent missing from our paychecks through March really be made up by unemployment?
Yes, for all but the highest-paid full-time faculty who earn more than $195,000 a year. These members would be sacrificing a fraction of their salary to support other workers, such as our TA and GA members.
Some of our members with lower salaries would, in fact, come out ahead. The $300-a-week federal unemployment supplement is paid to everyone approved for state-level unemployment benefits, and the lost pay from a half-day furlough is less than that for the vast majority of members
The university’s online Shared Work Furlough Gross Income Calculator will show you what your paycheck will look like if our proposal is accepted by the administration. For “Current Furloughed Days Per Week,” enter “0.5.”
Sen. Cory Booker and other members of Congress say this was exactly how they intended the supplemental payments to work when they were first enacted in the CARES Act last year: use federal money to keep laid-off and furloughed workers whole.
But I’ll have to apply for unemployment. Won’t that be a nightmare?
We won’t sugarcoat this, and it will be up to you whether you apply or not (neither the university nor the union can apply on your behalf).
This is what we know: Rutgers has a special process to handle unemployment applications, developed for non-aligned (non-union) employees who have been furloughed since last year. We’ve been told by members of other unions that management’s system works efficiently and payments come quickly. You can see the process that non-aligned employees are being told to follow at this webpage. The instructions are precise but fairly clear.
We have also heard reports from Rutgers employees who have run into problems and delays with the system. Again, no sugarcoating: At best, applying for UI will be an inconvenience at a time when we’re all coping with increased workloads. At worst, it will be a time-consuming and frustrating mess.
One significant potential pitfall is that members who don’t have a New Jersey drivers’ license will have to apply for unemployment by phone and speak to a live agent. This may mean long hold times while you try to get through to busy call centers—though the other instructions remain the same. We will seek assurances from management and state officials that the system will be set up effectively for our members to use. But we can’t guarantee that you won’t run into problems or delays.
No one wants to spend their time tangled up in bureaucracy and online forms, much less on the telephone with call centers. But our offer to participate in furloughs under work-sharing is the way we hope to accomplish our priorities of extending funding for grad workers and protecting the jobs of PTLs and staff. Applying for unemployment will be a burden, but we believe it is one worth making if we can support our vulnerable colleagues. We know some of our members will choose not to apply for unemployment insurance and simply take a temporary 10 percent pay cut. That choice is entirely yours to make.
Will everyone be able to furlough and/or get unemployment?
There are some important exceptions that we will make sure management recognizes. Anyone working at Rutgers under an H1B visa will be excluded from furloughs. All other visa holders will only participate under legally allowable circumstances.
Other members might be excluded from the program because their salaries are funded by grants and the terms of those grants require work during the entire period through mid-March. If that’s the case for you, Rutgers can’t furlough you.
I don’t live in New Jersey. Will this work for me?
Yes. Unemployment insurance is a system that covers employees based on the location of their employer. However, the process for filing a claim will be different. You will have to apply by phone, compounding the hassles of the system.
Will I make an individual decision about participating in work-sharing?
If management commits to our proposals, all members would be subject to work-share furloughs unless they are excluded by agreement with the administration. It would not be up to individual members to decide whether to accept furloughs under work-sharing or the percentage of time on furlough. But by the same token, the university could not pick and choose how work-sharing is applied among employees. We are all in this together.
What does it mean to furlough? Am I supposed to work less?
Under work-sharing, you would not be paid by Rutgers for one half-day of work a week, and in theory, you should take an afternoon off to compensate. But our jobs aren’t built around clocking in and clocking out, and your class time won’t be reduced by 10 percent. It will be up to individuals to adjust their work routine. You are within your rights to work 10 percent less and decline meetings during your furlough time. But realistically, many of us will change little about our schedules.
What about the proposal to defer our raises? What does that mean?
We are currently in arbitration (postponed since the fall) over management’s declaration of a fiscal emergency and cancelation of our merit raises that were due July 1 (other contractual raises, such as for promotion and tenure, were paid on July 1).
If we make this proposal, we would offer to give up arbitration and accept that our raises won’t show up in our paychecks until next July. We would be giving up the extra income we should have gotten from our raises for this school year, saving Rutgers more than $15 million. But we would demand that next July, the contractually negotiated raises for both 2020–21 and 2021–22 go into effect, so we won’t fall any further behind.
Is my health insurance and other benefits?
Work-sharing programs protect employer-provided benefits such as health insurance. Rutgers must still make its full contribution for employees’ health insurance.
Does work-sharing mean we would literally share work or job responsibilities?
No. The term “work-sharing” is sometimes confused with job-sharing—the idea that two or more workers share the same job or position, an entirely different concept. Work-sharing is the term used by legislators for programs that protect jobs through managed furloughs. What is being shared is not jobs or work responsibilities but who will pay for salaries. Under work-sharing, the employer and the government share the cost of salaries for furloughed employees.
I’m on sabbatical right now, so my salary is already reduced. Would work-sharing reduce it further?
Our proposal is designed to replace your salary at its current level if you apply for unemployment. If your salary is already being adjusted downward because of a sabbatical, you would maintain that current income. If work-sharing is still in place when you return from leave, the furlough would then be calculated on the basis of that higher income.
If we reach an agreement with management on work-sharing, will we be able to vote on it before it is implemented?
Yes. We won’t commit our union on an issue so important without a vote of the Executive Council and then a vote of the whole membership. We’re using the same principle that we used in negotiating our contract in 2019—representatives of the union negotiated with management on the terms of the contract, but the final agreement was put to a vote for the entire membership to decide whether to accept it or not.