Southwestern College’s early retirement incentive program has created concerns that critical classified positions, which impact students, will remain unfulfilled for too long.
The offer went to all employees who met the criteria the district established, including age and years of service among other requirements, said Silvia Nogales, performing arts coordinator and president of the California School Employees Association (CSEA).
Nearly 70 employees — including 19 faculty members — applied for the incentive program, which is designed to save the college money over the long term. Those who accepted the early retirement plan will start their retirement on June 30.
Nogales said these retirement incentives happen at all community colleges and in any public sector agency. “They offer these retirement incentives to get people at the top to retire,” Nogales said. “Becomes a cost savings for the organization. They hire newer people at lower salaries.”
Retirement incentives like this only come around every four to five years. This is one of the higher ones at 80 percent of the base pay.
SWC Interim Vice President of Human Resources Rose DelGaudio said the college wants to be clear with the unions that the district intends to get a good understanding on which positions are truly vacant. After identifying which positions are actually needed and if funding is available to fill those positions, the college will then move forward with hiring in alignment with the unions, DelGuadio said.
Nogales said it is imperative to identify where the college operational-critical needs are to get key positions replaced rapidly. Sometimes the district moves quickly, but some other times these positions were left empty for years impacting the operations of the college and in turn affecting the students. Classified positions include: information technology, library staff, food services staff, administrative secretaries working with the deans, clerks, custodians, mechanics, and maintenance workers among other supportive positions.
“It is always important that we work together, the union working directly with the college on a plan on how we are going to replace these positions,” Nogales said. “Our main concern is the impact that is going to have on students and operations of the college.”
Eric Maag, Professor of Communications and chair of the SCEA’s negotiating team, said the issue with vacant positions is far more common with classified staff than with faculty because state law requires that a college spend at least 50 percent of its budget on instruction.
Nogales said she wants to make sure that all faculty and administration colleagues understand how important the classified roles are and how much they need to be respected.
“Classified employees enjoy working with students and for students, and believe on the mission of preparing students for the future,” Nogales said.
SWC Governing Board Vice President Nora Vargas said she agrees that it’s important that classified staff don’t get the short shrift.
“The classified [staff] are the heart of it,” Vargas said. “They are the first people that the students see many times and we want to make sure that there is enough staff, and that they have what they need to be able to fulfil their jobs.”
Typically, early retirement programs do not have a significant impact on faculty departments, Maag said. Departments have enough faculty members that a couple of people retiring does not cause a huge problem, he said, adding that the college has a large supply of adjunct faculty members to cover classes on those situations.
However, DelGaudio said, a full-time faculty member can teach a minimum of five sections, while part-time faculty can only teach three sections by law. And the 50-percent law requires that at least half the classes offered at SWC be taught by full-time faculty.
Regarding classified staff, the union recently met with SWC President Dr. Kindred Murillo to stress the importance of working collaboratively, Nogales said.
DelGaudio said the district is pleased to be able to provide the retirement incentive to qualified
employees because it will help them to bridge the transition from full-time position to retiring
mode.
“I’m excited for all those employees that have spent their careers here (SWC) and they get to
retire from here. They have served well,” Nogales said. “They should feel proud of the work they done.”
