MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT
"Family Friendly" Leaves and Benefits for
Full-Time and Salaried Part-Time Members of the Day Bargaining Unit

Last summer, Acting Governor Jane Swift enacted a series of "family friendly" leaves and benefits for state employees in the executive branch. The MSCA requested to bargain these leaves and benefits on behalf of the membership. The MSCA Bargaining Committee, chaired by Brad Art, and representatives of the employer met several times during the fall semester to accomplish this task. The resulting memorandum of agreement was executed on January 17th, and the following leaves, benefits and other changes in working conditions are now in effect for full-time and salaried part-time members of the day bargaining unit.

MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT

This Memorandum of Agreement is made this 17 day of January, 2002, by and between the Board of Higher Education (the “Board”) and the Massachusetts Teachers Association (the “Association”).

WHEREAS, the Board and the Association are parties to a collective bargaining agreement (the “Agreement”) that has been made between them with effect for a term commencing on July 1, 2001; and

WHEREAS, the Board and the Association undertook, in connection with the negotiation and making of the Agreement, to engage in further negotiations concerning the adoption, for the benefit of persons in the bargaining unit to which the Agreement applies, of certain enhanced family friendly benefits and policies, so called; and

WHEREAS, the Board and the Association have engaged in such negotiations and, pursuant to them, have arrived at a comprehensive agreement concerning all such family friendly benefits and policies except issues related to telecommuting, which issues remain subject to further negotiation as they pertain to distance education and technology; and

WHEREAS, the Board and the Association are desirous of recording such agreement in order thereby to give it effect;

NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the foregoing premises and of the undertakings hereinafter recorded, the Board and the Association hereby agree as follows:

1. Leave Under the Family and Medical Leave Act
Whenever any member of the bargaining unit takes any leave that is (but only to the extent that it is) newly conferred under this Memorandum of Agreement, whether such leave is paid or unpaid, for any purpose for which leave is also available under the Family and Medical Leave Act (29 U.S.C. §2601 et seq.), such leave shall be taken and shall run concurrently with any leave then available to such unit member under the Family and Medical Leave Act: it being acknowledged by the parties that they discussed but failed to reach any agreement concerning the extent to which any leave not so conferred might run concurrently with any leave then available under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

2. Enhanced Paid Leave for the Birth, Adoption, or Placement of a Child in Foster Care
Paid leave shall, at the request of any member of the bargaining unit, be granted to him or her (whether the unit member is the child’s father or mother) on any of the following occasions:

a) for the birth of such unit member’s child;
b) for the adoption of a child; and
c) for the placement of a child as a foster child in the unit member’s home.

The leave so granted shall be such number of consecutive days as the unit member may request but shall not exceed ten (10) such days.

The granting of leave hereunder shall not be deemed to limit any members’ entitlement to sick leave but shall be taken and shall run concurrently with any leave then available as maternity leave or paternity leave, including any leave then available under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

3. Enhanced Use of Sick Leave for Both Sick-in-Family and Parental Purposes
A member of the bargaining unit may use up to twenty (20) days of his or her accrued sick leave during any calendar year for the following purposes:

a) to care for

(i) the unit member’s spouse or
(ii) the unit member’s child or parent or
(iii) the child or parent of his or her spouse or
(iv) a relative living in the unit member’s immediate household whenever, in any such case, any such person has a serious medical condition within the meaning of the Family and Medical Leave Act; and

b) in connection with the birth or adoption of such unit member’s child (whether the unit member is the child’s father or mother).

Such leave shall be taken and shall run concurrently with any leave then available under the Family and Medical Leave Act; and to the extent the same are congruent, leave taken hereunder or under Article IV, §A(1)-(a)(iii), of the Agreement shall be taken together and shall run concurrently with one another

From and after the effective date hereof, leave available to be taken under Article IV, §A(1)(a)(iii), of the Agreement shall be available to be taken during each calendar year rather than during each work year.

4. Enhanced Foster Care Benefits
A member of the bargaining unit may use up to ten (10) days of his or her accrued sick leave during any calendar year in connection with a foster child’s placement, by the Department of Social Services, in the home of a member of the bargaining unit.

5. Alternative Work Options
At the request of any librarian who is a member of the bargaining unit and at the sole discretion of the President or his/her designee, the schedule and the hours of work of such librarian may be arranged pursuant to such alternative work options as part-time work, flextime, compressed work weeks, staggered work hours and job-sharing; provided, first, that nothing herein contained shall be deemed to alter or limit the authorities or obligations of any College under Article XII of the Agreement; and provided further that nothing herein contained shall be deemed to cause any part-time librarian to be or become a member of the bargaining unit to which the Agreement applies.

6. Telecommuting
At the request of a unit member, any College may, on a case-by-case basis and at its sole discretion, make telecommuting arrangements with such member of the bargaining unit with respect to some or all of any such unit member’s duties and responsibilities. Every such arrangement shall be memorialized in a written agreement.

7. Domestic Violence Leave
A member of the bargaining unit may use up to fifteen (15) days of his or her accrued sick leave for any purpose arising from his or her having been the victim of domestic violence. A member of the bargaining unit may, further, take up to six (6) months of unpaid leave for any such purpose; provided only that any other leave taken for such purpose, including any leave taken pursuant to the preceding sentence, shall be taken and run concurrently with any leave taken pursuant to this sentence.

The granting of leave hereunder shall not be deemed to limit any unit member’s entitlement to sick leave.

8. Volunteer Leave
At the sole discretion of the President or his/her designee, a member of the bargaining unit who requests the same may be granted up to one (1) day of paid leave each month to volunteer at a public school in the Commonwealth or to participate in a mentoring program to assist young people.

9. General
The granting of all leaves and benefits under the Agreement is subject to the following:

a) appropriate documentary confirmation of a unit member’s entitlement to or qualification for any leave or benefit that is (but only to the extent that it is) newly conferred under this Memorandum of Agreement;
b) the giving of advance notice to the unit member’s department chair (in the case of faculty) or to the Director, Library (in the case of librarians), when scheduling any discretionary absence; and
c) sick leave shall not be permitted to be drawn from the sick leave bank under the Agreement for use pursuant to paragraph 3, 4, or 7 above or for use pursuant to Article IV, §A(1)(a)(iii), of the Agreement.

10. Entitlement
No person in the bargaining unit holding a part-time appointment elsewhere than at the Massachusetts College of Art shall be entitled to any of the leaves or benefits set forth in this Memorandum of Agreement.

11. Effective Date
The provisions of this Memorandum of Agreement and the benefits and entitlements hereby accorded shall have effect as provisions of the Agreement from and after the date first inscribed above. Board of Higher Education

Board of Higher Education s/ Carleton LaPorte

MTA/MSCA s/ Patricia V. Markunas