When a unit 4 Employee gets promoted out, it is more common for it to be on a temporary basis. It’s usually because a Unit 4 Member gets promoted to an MPP position which is a management position. That is the norm but there could be other situations where they are reassigned to another bargaining unit, for instance CSUEU. But for the most part it’s always a promotion up and that’s always management positions.
Why Employees Get Temporarily Promoted
It typically happens for SSP3’s and SSP4’s. But it could potentially happen even to an SSP2, depending on if the SSP2 is potentially in a temporary position. It doesn’t happen that often, but it can, but more than likely it probably does happen with the SSP4, since the SSP4 position is right at the top of the SSP classification standards.
Most SSP4’s serve in a supervisory capacity in that they supervise the work of others. They can supervise the work, but not the people as they do not have the same duties as a manger would. It’s basically hire, fire, promote, approve vacations. They’re the right-hand person so usually they’re the person they look to in case an MPP position becomes available and before they fill out the position.
They sometimes put people in a temporary position as an MPP while they’re recruiting for that position. This allows them to get the experience if they want to apply for that position. It’s up to the employee and the situation. Article 17 is the one that covers this.
Ending the Reassignment
Employees can they decline the temporary promotion. However, most wouldn’t because it’s an opportunity for them to grow as a professional and usually it’s going to be a three-month or six-month assignment. Once they sign the temporary reassignment, they’re obligated to fulfil the temporary position. It’s possible a person got into the position and then think, “This is not for me, I didn’t expect all this stress, I didn’t expect all this work, I need to end the assignment.” And they could request that as well.
There aren’t repercussions for the employee, there could be repercussions for the department because they wouldn’t have a manager. But not for the employee, it’s within their rights to go back. The university also has the right to end it a little early. There is a time frame that the university must let the person know that this reassignment is coming to an end early. It can end early for any reason, and that is in the contract.
Who Gets the Offer?
It doesn’t automatically go to the person that has the most seniority in that department. It could be anybody. Any of the number of people that are serving in a leadership capacity or someone who has the most experience doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to be asked. It’s entirely up to the person above them. It would be something like a Director, a Dean, or Vice President. They will make the decision on who they want to put in the current position. It doesn’t necessarily have to be someone with the most seniority, it’s just somebody they feel is the best fit, and someone they want to give that opportunity to.
In most situations, it usually is the person who has the most seniority and the most experience, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Can the Position Become Permanent?
It does start off as a temporary position, but when the position gets posted, the person who’s in the position has the ability to apply for it. So even though it’s a temporary reassignment the position must be posted and then everybody who’s eligible can apply including the person who’s in the temporary reassignment. There’s no guarantee that the person who got the temporary reassignment will actually get the position either. They can hire whoever they want, especially an MPP management, these are well-known employees so there’s no advantage of having a temporary reassignment to that position, there’s no favoritism of any sort. If they want to hire them, they will but they don’t necessarily have to. It’s supposed to be a competitive selection process.
How Long is the Assignment?
They can only be in the position for two years, that is the maximum amount of temporary reassignment, and it cannot be renewed again. They do have the right to go back to their previous position. In the contract it does say “or equivalent”, but that’s rare.
Pros and Cons
There are some pros to consider when you serve in the MPP field, one of the biggest is that you get an increase in pay. Generally, for most campus’s the minimum is at least 10% bump in pay, but it can vary from campus to campus.
An additional benefit is that MPP’s automatically get two days of vacation per month, whereas and employee or an SSP or other represented groups, their starting vacation is six and two-thirds hours per month. It does increase as time goes on, but it takes 25 years to get to two days a month of vacation which the MPP gets on day one. So there really is a big discrepancy between the two classifications there.
Plus, they get better medical and dental benefits.
If the employee is on payroll May 1st regardless of the reassignment, they will get the Budget Shortfall Mitigation Bonus that all Unit 4 members get. But if they get reassigned during the month of May, they would not be eligible to get it when they come back, because they have to be on payroll for Unit 4 members as of May 1st.
Some of the cons are that they’re not in the union they’re not paying any dues, so they’re not represented, that is one of the cons. And you don’t get the unions updates, you’re not getting the updates that are coming from the chapter leadership. Though the person can be in contact with the union representative if they really wanted to know what’s going on with the union. They could talk with their union steward during they’re temporary assignment. But during their time they’re considered inactive, and they’re not getting any of the updates that the unions statewide office will be sending out.