TO: MSCA UNIT MEMBERS WHO HAVE APPLIED FOR OR ARE CONTEMPLATING EARLY RETIREMENT (ERIP):
FROM: PATRICIA V. MARKUNAS, MSCA PRESIDENT

The following message (in two parts) from COP Counsel Mark Peters was written pursuant to an agreement reached by the MSCA and the COP on March 15, 2002.

I draw your attention to Paragraph #3. The MSCA agreed to urge unit members to inform their college president by April 1, 2002 if they plan to take early retirement. This is a courtesy to the presidents, who have agreed to waive the three-month notice for sick leave buy-back and the post-sabbatical service/repayment requirement for those faculty and librarians who retire under ERIP, whether or not they provide notice directly to the college.

Telling the president of your plans will not commit you to retiring from the college but will allow for staffing decisions to be made.

Please do tell your college president of your intentions by April 1st if possible, or as soon as you can. Thank you.

Message to the COP from Mark Peters, dated March 16th:

I write to confirm for all the Colleges understandings arrived at with representatives of the MSCA concerning the implementation of the statutory early retirement incentive program (ERIP) as it pertains to members of the MSCA bargaining unit; because I wish this to confirm the understandings for all parties, I am directing a copy of it to Pat Markunas as President of the MSCA.

1. Members of the bargaining unit who retire pursuant to ERIP will be entitled to their contractually prescribed sick-leave buy-back without being required to give the Colleges three months' notice of their retirement; the notice, in other words, is waived.

2. For members of the bargaining unit who retire pursuant to ERIP, the Colleges will waive any outstanding obligation either to return to the College for twice the duration of any sabbatical leave they have taken or to reimburse the College for the leave.

3. The Association will make it known to members of the bargaining unit who have elected ERIP that they should give notice to the College of their election no later than April 1; by giving such notice, however, unit members will not be barred from withdrawing their ERIP election in whatever manner is permitted by the State Board of Retirement.

These points were declared and confirmed orally at yesterday's meeting of the MSCA Employee Relations Committee. It was also agreed then that when the impact of ERIP is more particularly known, the parties will discuss the circumstances in which the 15% cap on the use of part-time faculty may be waived and exceeded.

Message from Mark Peters dated March 20th:

I wish to amplify one point that I made in the e-mail I sent you on the 16th concerning the implementation of early retirement for members of the MSCA bargaining unit.

I said in my earlier note--it appeared in its third numbered paragraph--that a member of the bargaining unit who gave the College notice of his or her election to take early retirement would not be barred thereby from withdrawing that election in whatever manner is permitted by the State Board of Retirement. I wish now to make clear by way of corollary that the giving of such notice to the College does not, therefore, constitute a binding commitment to retire from the College.