Temporary Contracts Explained - Again

Who can be hired on a temporary contract? Unit members, department chairs and even members of management often ask union representatives this question. Too many grievances arise because both appointees and those who hire them are unaware of the terms under which temporary employees can be, or rather, should be hired.

Temporary contracts are governed by the terms of Article XIII, Section D. of the full-time/part-time Agreement. This article contains several requirements:

1. Employees who are issued a XIII.D appointment —the short hand for such a contract— must be informed in their letters of appointment of the non-renewability of this contract.

2. Employees may only be given temporary appointments if there is a bona fide emergency or if they are hired to replace a person on leave or to fill a grant-funded position. What is, in practice, a bona fide emergency? Bona fide emergencies are considered to exist where there was not enough time to do a search or where a search failed.          

3. Employees who serve more than one year must be put on a normal contract unless they continue to serve as in item #2.

4. Temporary employees may serve for a total of three years on these contracts. The third year of such an appointment, however, can only occur if the employee is replacing someone on leave or is filling a grant-funded position. The Agreement states, "In no event will an employee be on a XIII.D appointment beyond three years."

5. Employees who receive a XIII.D appointment must be evaluated in the same manner as other employees up to and including the Dean's or Director’s level each year they serve.

6. These employees also have the right to apply for any opening that develops for which they are qualified and may use their evaluation materials as part of their application. If search committees and Deans feel that other candidates are better qualified that is an academic judgment. That ends the matter unless there are procedural violations or questions of discrimination.

7. Employees who are on XIII.D appointments should understand that in the event they are moved to a tenure-track or permanent staff position, their service as a XIII.D appointee counts toward tenure.

What mistakes give rise to grievances? Occasionally temporary appointees are issued letters of appointment that fail to state the nature of the appointment. Recently, colleges and universities have taken to issuing letters of appointment that paraphrase the terms of Article XIII, Section D. Sometimes, the Union finds that the conditions for the use of a temporary contract were not met, that is, there was no bona fide emergency or replacement of a person on leave involved. More often a grievance is filed because the XIII.D appointee did not get evaluated or was denied the right to apply for an opening.

If you are on a temporary contract or you are involved in hiring temporary employees, you may wish to save this article for future reference.