A pair of adjunct faculty members filed a lawsuit against College of the Canyons on behalf of the union alleging that adjunct faculty were not lawfully paid for “unscheduled office hours,” according to court records.
The suit, filed by Dan Portillo, president of the adjunct faculty union, and Aaron Silverman, vice president of the union, arose from a memorandum of understanding between American Federation of Teachers Local 6262, which represents adjunct faculty at COC, and the Santa Clarita Community College District, which COC is a part of.
The MOU was active from 2017-2020 and required adjunct faculty to “generally perform similar duties as those required of them during ‘scheduled’ office hours,’” according to court records.
Anywhere from 500 to 3,000 employees were affected, according to court records.
“Fair pay is not the policy or practice” of the college, the complaint reads.
Eric Harnish, a spokesman for the college, said Monday afternoon in an email that the district “does not comment on pending litigation” and is unaware of the lawsuit referenced.
Portillo declined to comment when reached by phone Monday afternoon.
According to a table of office hours required of adjunct faculty that was included in that MOU, those with three units of instruction on-campus were required to have 30 minutes of paid office hours and the same amount of “required, unpaid, unscheduled office hours.” For each subsequent unit taught, another 20 minutes of office hours were required, half paid and half unpaid, according to court records.
“Unit members will not be compensated for unscheduled office hours,” reads the MOU contained in the complaint. “However, if the district receives state reimbursement for office hours in excess of the amount paid for scheduled office hours, the district will distribute the surplus to compensate unit members for unscheduled office hours.”
No “surplus” funding was ever received by adjunct faculty during that time, the suit alleges.
The suit further alleges that the non-payment of unscheduled office hours was a violation of California’s minimum wage laws, as outlined in Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Order No 4-2001. Under that statute, COC is required to pay employees a minimum wage consistent with state requirements.
“As a result of defendant’s unlawful pay policies and/or practices, plaintiffs and putative class members have been denied minimum wages legally owed to them for work performed,” the complaint reads.
The suit states that because adjunct faculty “do not earn a monthly salary that is equivalent to at least two times the state minimum wage for full-time employment,” they were not exempt from minimum wage laws.
“As a direct and proximate result of the unlawful actions of district, plaintiffs have suffered and continue to suffer from loss of earnings in amounts as yet unascertained, but subject to proof at trial, and within the jurisdiction of this court,” the complaint reads.
The California Labor and Workforce Development Agency was notified of the violation, but COC did not investigate the allegations, according to court records.
This is not the first time that adjunct faculty and the college have been at odds over pay.
In May, the college requested that adjunct faculty return what amounted to four months of overpayments, a total of $120,000 affecting 270 professors, for office hours worked. John Green, a spokesman for the college, explained at the time that the overpayments were due to a “clerical error” noticed during an annual report.
Green said at the time that the college was trying to be flexible with repayments but that “most” of those affected had already contacted the college to arrange repayment. He added that the college was legally required to recover the overpaid funds due to it being a taxpayer-supported institution.
