Layoff Protections

Tenure-Line faculty

Article 14: The new language codifies tenure-line faculty job protections that exist in the PSU Standard. Tenure-line faculty can only be terminated for cause or as a result of retrenchment (Article 22). Tenure-track faculty who are not renewed must be provided with notice. 

Click here to read the contract language.

Non-tenure faculty on Continuous Appointment

Article 18: Nontenure-track faculty on continuous appointment will receive 12-months’ notice if they are laid off due to programmatic or curricular changes. If changes occur due to “excess instructional capacity,” the unit or department will have 40-days to review the basis for this determination, assess its impact on programs or curricula, and propose alternatives. Notices cannot be issued until the unit-level shared governance process has been completed. The University cannot redistribute a laid-off NTTF’s work to multiple part-time faculty. A NTTF member who fails to successfully complete their Faculty Improvement Plan will be provided with 12-months’ notice. 

Click here to read the contract language.

Article 22 MOA: If retrenchment is invoked because a department or program is causing a serious financial distortion, tenured faculty, tenure-track faculty who have completed their second year, and nontenure-track faculty on continuous appointment will receive 12-months’ notice of layoff. Tenure-track faculty and pre-continuous appointment nontenure-track faculty in their first year will receive 3 months’ notice. Tenure-track faculty in their second year and pre-continuous appointment nontenure-track faculty in their second through sixth years will receive 6 months’ notice. Academic professionals will receive 6 months’ notice. Fixed-term faculty will receive 3 months’ notice or notice through the end of their current contract year, whichever is shorter. 

These notice provisions are contained in a Memorandum of Agreement appended to the contract and are in place for the duration of the contract. The administration and the union have agreed to bargain over language to be inserted into the body of Article 22 at a later date because this may require a revision or rescission of PSU Standards 580-021-0305 and -0315. 

Each of the above articles now includes language allowing the University to use its discretion to provide severance (full salaries and benefits) in lieu of all or part of the notice time. Faculty and APs will be given access to PSU email and the library upon request. All laid-off faculty and APs will be automatically placed on the recall list.

Click here to read the contract language.