P&A = slave labor?

The administration has put forward a new policy, Modifying Appointments of Academic Professional and Academic Administrative Employees for Financial Stringency. It allows the administration to treat P&A employees, who already deal with precarious employment practices, in an even more arbitrary fashion. The text of the proposed policy is below.

***
POLICY STATEMENT
The University reserves the right to modify the appointment terms of Academic Professional and Academic Administrative (P&A) employees throughout the University system in order to address financial stringency. Specifically, the University may: 1) reduce P&A salaries or percentages of appointment during the term of an employee’s appointment; 2) impose unpaid furloughs or other mandatory unpaid absences; 3) postpone compensation; or 4) take other actions as determined by the University in its sole discretion. All P&A appointments are made subject to this right, effective June 1, 2010.

Authority

The President will determine whether a financial stringency exists. The authority, by delegation of the President, to modify terms of appointment under this policy will reside with the Vice President for Human Resources.

Implementation

Any modification of terms of appointment under this policy must:

Have a defined term, not to exceed two years unless renewed by the Vice President for Human Resources under this policy;

Be communicated to affected employees in a timely fashion in advance of implementation.
***

The policy becomes official in June. New policies undergo a 30-day review period, which gives employees a chance to comment. You may leave a comment here:

http://policy.umn.edu/Policies/hr/Contracts/MODIFYAPPOINTPA.html