Take Action Against the Over-Deduction of OPEB Funds

As faculty, we dedicate our lives to serving students, and from our leaders, we expect a commitment to supporting us as we work to fulfill CCSF’s mission.

That is why the college’s continued over-deduction of OPEB contributions from hundreds of full-time faculty paychecks stings so badly. These over-deductions are a violation of our contract and indeed represent wage theft. Yet, when AFT’s grievance team brought this issue to the attention of our administration, we received denial and stonewalling. CCSF faculty deserve better.

We are launching a petition to Chancellor Martin & the full Board of Trustees calling on them to immediately cease these over-deductions and make all affected faculty whole.

Share & sign the petition here.

As it stands, the District is choosing to challenge this issue in arbitration in May. This would be a gross misuse of college funds, and a slap in the face to the largest group of employees at CCSF. The District will lose in arbitration.

We urge CCSF’s leaders to avoid needless conflict and do the right thing for faculty and our college.

Background
Full-time faculty have a retirement healthcare benefit that involves participation in the Retiree Health Care Trust Fund (RHCTF). This shows up as OPEB on faculty paychecks, and the amounts that faculty contribute to this fund were negotiated by your AFT 2121 Bargaining Team in 2013. For faculty hired before January of 2014, the payroll deduction that the college takes toward OPEB should never exceed 1%. However, for many months, even years, the college has been deducting a higher amount (from 1.25% to 2%) from hundreds of full-time faculty hired prior to 2014.

Our contract has a process for obvious violations like this one, and your AFT 2121 Grievance team has been moving this violation through that process.

Working with affected faculty, AFT’s grievance team has brought the issue to the attention of HR, filed a grievance, and has now escalated the matter to arbitration. During this whole time, the District has simply refused to meaningfully engage.

Arbitration is expensive and slow. It is unconscionable that the administration would choose to devote our college’s resources to a needless legal fight.