GSWs and postdocs in CCE and EAS have been reporting that they are receiving news about unexpected policy changes regarding job expectation, specifically hours spent in the laboratory/workplace, and consequently, allotment and tracking of vacation. The Interim Executive Board wants to assure you that we will be contacting the Institute for further clarification on these matters. Until then, it is important that you know your rights to take vacation and maintain flexible working hours.
Our job expectations article preserves flexibility in working arrangements, while protecting against excessive work unrelated to research and degree requirements. While the article does explicitly list suggested work hours and define specific tasks workers are expected to perform, all working arrangements, including work hours and work from home policy, are ultimately decided between you and your supervisor.
GSWs and postdocs are entitled to, respectively, 10 and 21 vacation days per year, and 7 days off to renew visas. Previously, newly-employed postdocs had to wait 9 months before using vacation and no days were guaranteed for visa renewal. Now, these days are available as soon as you begin your position. Caltech has not yet updated the postdoc and graduate student handbooks to accurately reflect our contract. In any cases where they disagree, our contract has legal authority.
The number of vacation days are explicitly not maximums and, as was true before our contract, additional vacation days can be granted by your supervisor. Before unionizing, many GSWs and postdocs were entirely denied both vacation and time off to renew visas. To ensure that every GSW and postdoc can take vacation, workers should personally track their vacation days, as supervisors may request this information. While personal tracking may not always be necessary, it provides important documentation in case an advisor attempts to deny your vacation days. Any claims that your supervisor “cannot” approve additional days on the basis of our contract are misinformed, and should be reported.
Ultimately, it’s up to us, postdocs and GSWs, to know our rights, enforce our contract, and stand up to arbitrary admin decisions. If your supervisor or department is making unexpected policy changes and claiming that it’s required by the union contract (CBA), please reach out by emailing organize@cgpu.org, and a GSW or postdoc will be happy to discuss with you and your lab, including the topic of navigating conversations with your advisor(s) on this issue. More contract information including comparisons of policy before and after unionization, plain-text descriptions about each article, and the full legal text is available on our website. We will continue to update you on any progress we make in getting clarity from the Caltech administration.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to organize@cgpu.org, if you want to discuss more, suspect a contract violation, or are hearing misinformation about your rights.
Signed,
Your UAW 2478 Interim Executive Board
Nadia Suryawinata
Patrick Meyers
Emma Lenz
Korbi Thalhammer
Mike McKeon
