CSA Backpay Holding up New Contract
Contract talks between the principals union and the city break down over issue of back pay
The CSA and the city have hit a roadblock over this (predictable) question: Will Administrators who worked under the expired teacher’s contract get back pay?
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We posted about the new teacher contract here. And we posted about the CSA backpay question here.
The CSA question has been unclear since the UFT Contract was ratified. Ernest Logan, CSA President, says that the city is overlooking what he calls, “a moral issue.”
The Daily News estimates that administrators could be out anywhere from $15,000 to $54,000 if the city sticks to its stance here.
Logan spoke to Capital NY:
What is the CSA Backpay issue about?
At issue are 1,900 educators who were promoted from teaching positions to assistant principals or principals since 2009, the first year for which the newly ratified United Federation of Teachers takes effect.
Logan said he believed the retroactive pay issue would be a disincentive for excellent teachers to accept promotions into supervisory positions, considering they would lose their claim to pay settled in the U.F.T. contract.
What about Teacher who get promoted now?
Anybody who leaves their job as a teacher up until 2020 will immediately stop getting any back pay, even if the reason they leave teaching is because they’ve been promoted to assistant principal or principal.
The contract issue presents a possible political dilemma for de Blasio, who has an important ally in the C.S.A. over pre-K and other education initiatives. Logan hinted at that tension on Tuesday, saying, “there are a lot of new issues that the chancellor would like to implement.
He also highlighted the mayor’s initiatives in his post to CSA Members in the CSA News this month.
Logan focused the post on the question of tenure, but clearly states his stance that if the mayor is to be successful with the expansion of Universal Pre K, Middle-School after-school, and more, he will need the cooperation of CSA members:
“The viability of all three initiatives and the vitality of our schools in general depend partly on your vigilance about your own peace of mind and professional security. I draw your attention to teacher and blogger Peter Greene’s recent posting; just substitute “school leader” for teacher:
“It’s true that in the absence of tenure, teachers can (and are) fired for all manner of ridiculous things …The threat of firing is the great ‘Do this or else …’ It takes all the powerful people a teacher must deal with and arms each one with a nuclear device.” [Mr. Greene’s full column is on Page 11 of the September issue of the CSA News.]
” There’s no chance in hell that losing your due-process rights will make you better educators.”
He tells LaborPress: “Historically, when you got promoted into a supervisory role, you were always entitled to whatever you earned as a teacher whenever that contract was settled. When a contract that went back a few years was agreed upon, and then you got a new position, you always received that money. But now for the first time ever [the city] doesn’t want to do that,”
Labor Press also cites this:
What’s the city’s argument about CSA Backpay?
Logan said the city has told him he shouldn’t worry about this issue because the promoted individuals will make that money up as they start their new jobs with a salary of close to $100,000.
But Logan told the city it’s not that simple.
“The city tries to make this point with me—that if they [the promoted teachers] stay long enough, they’ll make that money up. But I remind them that it takes five years to get tenure as an AP, and if they’re not successful, they lose that money that they [otherwise] would have had as a teacher, [including] the lost AP salary,” said Logan. “The only way they can make that money up is that you have to have the longevity of being there 10 or 15 years.”
On NY1, Logan said that if the backpay question could get settled, the contract would have no stumbling blocks.
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