UUP: Support Unemployment Insurance for Part-Time Employees

Level of Government: State

As a member of United University Professions (UUP) and a State University of New York (SUNY) employee, I urge you to support legislation (S.4123 and A.613), which amends the Labor Law to provide that an offer of employment or assignment made to a part-time faculty employee by a higher education institution that is contingent on enrollment, funding, or programmatic changes shall not constitute reasonable assurance of continued employment under the Labor Law.

Unemployment insurance is a benefit that is supposed to cover workers during times of unemployment when they earn no income. Under current law, many part-time faculty working in colleges and universities in New York State are unable to receive unemployment insurance when they have become unemployed between semesters because the college or university holds that they have a reasonable assurance of continuous employment. Yet, in reality, these employees have no "reasonable assurance" that they will have a job when the next semester starts as that decision rests entirely with the employer and is often based on contingent factors such as enrollment, funding and programmatic changes. In many cases, these employees are not notified by the college or university that there is no position for them until very close to the start of the next semester. In fact, current law provides an incentive to colleges and universities to wait as long as possible to officially disclose to part-time faculty that they will not be employed for the upcoming semester to avoid paying unemployment insurance costs for those employees between semesters.

This legislation levels the playing field for employees by addressing the current practice of allowing letters from administrators that stipulate an "intent to hire" that are based on contingencies such as enrollment, funding, or program changes to be offered as evidence of reasonable assurance of continued employment. This measure changes this current unfair practice by stipulating that such contingent offers of employment do not constitute reasonable assurance of continued employment and rightfully places the burden of proof on the employer to provide sufficient documentation, on a case-by-case basis, to overcome this presumption.

Moreover, it is important to note that the enactment of this legislation will not guarantee unemployment insurance benefits for part-time higher education employees. That determination will still be made on a case-by-case basis as are all unemployment insurance claims. In fact, only a small fraction of adjuncts will be eligible for unemployment insurance. The vast majority of adjunct faculty are either employed full-time elsewhere or work year-round as adjuncts or part-time at other jobs and therefore are ineligible for benefits.

I believe that New York State must enact these changes in the Labor Law to help ensure that higher education part-time faculty members are treated equitably with other workers who have no reasonable assurance of continued employment and are eligible for unemployment insurance benefits.

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