Yale University Extends Job Security for all Clerical and Technical Workers

Yale University today presented its unions with a proposal to significantly increase job security for all clerical and technical employees in Local 34.

Under the new proposal, Local 34 employees with six or more years of service who are laid off could remain in Yale’s Interim Employment Pool for 15 months, rather than the 12 months currently provided. Workers in the pool receive full pay and benefits while they perform temporary assignments. They also receive priority consideration for permanent job openings at Yale during this period.

“We know of no other employer in the region that offers comparable periods of salary and benefit protection and priority for re-employment,” said Helaine Klasky, Yale’s director of public affairs.

Yale also proposed new support for any laid off employees in Local 34 with 15 years of service at Yale. If such an employee does not find permanent employment while in the pool, Yale would provide one week of salary for every two years of service. For example, an employee with 20 years of service at Yale would receive an additional 10 weeks of pay.

Yale employees with at least one year of experience at Yale, but less than six, are eligible for six months in the Interim Employment Pool in the event of a layoff.

“The unions have expressed continual concern for the job security of Local 34 employees, despite the facts that layoffs are rare and that the Local 34 workforce at Yale has grown by 146 positions since January 2002,” said Klasky. “This proposal is a generous response to that concern and should resolve this issue.”

The current demand by Yale’s unions is that any Local 34 employees who are laid off be placed in the Interim Employment Pool with full pay and benefits until they are placed in another permanent job at Yale.

“This demand for guaranteed lifetime employment at Yale for every worker is unreasonable,” said Klasky. “No institution should forfeit its ability to manage its workforce in response to changing needs.”

Yale’s unions have set an August 27 strike date.

“We have worked hard to not only ensure that we have put forth a fair and generous wage, pension and benefit package but also to address one of the primary concerns of the union - namely job security,” Klasky said. “It is still our hope to settle the contract without a strike. To do so will require a more reasonable stance by the unions.”

Yale’s full contract offer can be viewed at:

www.yale.edu/opa/labor