A year ago, Gov. Chris Christie told teachers they should agree to a one-year pay freeze, insisting that the thousands of layoffs caused by his budget cuts would be avoided if they did. That claim was proven false by an Office of Legislative Services report. Still, when faced with the prospect of layoffs, local education associations across New Jersey considered whether to reopen their contracts and agree to wage freezes or other concessions.
Under current law, however, school employees are prohibited from bargaining over staffing levels. Many local education associations, when considering whether to reopen contracts, were deterred by the fact that there was no way to guarantee that their colleagues’ jobs would be saved even if concessions were made.
The reason: there was no legal requirement that concessions had to be used to rehire personnel.
Now there will be if Gov. Christie signs a bill that currently sits on his desk.
“Legislation that has passed both the Senate and the Assembly by overwhelming bipartisan margins now awaits Gov. Christie’s signature,” said NJEA President Barbara Keshishian. S-1940, which passed the Senate by a vote of 36-2, and A-2772, which passed the Assembly 69-8, require that the monetary equivalent of any wage or benefit concession agreed to by a collective bargaining unit be used by the school district to offset reductions in force initiated for economic reasons.
“In light of Gov. Christie’s repeated calls for school employees to open contracts and negotiate concessions in order to save jobs, NJEA urges the governor to sign legislation giving school employees the ability to do so,” Keshishian said. Under current law, employees are prohibited from negotiating staffing levels. That means that even when employees negotiate concessions, they have no legally enforceable guarantee that the district will use the savings to preserve jobs.
“In practice, this legislation allows employees and boards of education to negotiate in good faith on issues of wage and benefit concessions intended to save jobs,” she said. “Employees will have confidence, backed by a legal guarantee, that if they choose to negotiate concessions in order to save the jobs of their colleagues, those jobs will in fact be preserved.”
In a letter to Gov. Christie on March 1, Keshishian urged him to sign the legislation, which has been sitting on his desk since the Assembly passed it on Feb. 17. She wrote, “During the past year, we have heard your call for shared sacrifice to ease property tax increases and curtail salary raises. As taxpayers, homeowners, and public employees who shape young minds, we want to do our part.”
Keshishian noted that several districts have negotiated wage freezes, but still faced deep cuts in staff.
“The legislation before Gov. Christie will make school employees true partners in the task of finding solutions to the problems caused by deep cuts in school funding,” she said.
Christie has until April 3 to act on the bill. If he does nothing, the bill automatically becomes law.