Just like other professional engagements, the teaching fraternity has legal documents that detail the nature of their employment, thus acting as a basis for legal actions in the future. A Collective Bargaining Agreement and an Employee Handbook for teachers are examples of these legally recognized documents that define diverse aspects of a teacher's contract with their employers. A Collective Bargaining Agreement (C.B.A.) for teachers is a legal document that embodies a contract between the employing body for teachers and their union in a given district (Collective Bargaining Agreement, 2019). Differently, an Employee Handbook for teachers represents a collection of carefully chosen employment policies, rules, and regulations that govern teachers' employment in a given district (School District of Superior, 2017). Although the underlying principle of the two documents is to streamline teachers’ employment, they have similarities and differences that distinguish them, besides the specifics of individual districts. For instance, the Employee Handbook for Teachers in the District of Superior details employment policies, rules, and regulations to administrate their employment in this District. Contrarily, the C.B.A. between Independent School District No. 709 and Duluth Federation of Teachers Local 692, A.F.T. comprises terms such as remuneration, hours of work, and terms and conditions of employment for teachers in this jurisdiction area. Despite these two legal documents having different jurisdictions, they have similarities and dissimilarities in their content.
Both the Employee Handbook for Teachers in the District of Superior and the C.B.A. between Independent School District No. 709 and Duluth Federation of Teachers allows for the inspection of personal files. The fundamental principle for this clause is that the law obligates teachers' employers and unions to allow their employees access to individual files. Personnel files for teachers in the District of Superior are maintained at the administrative offices. According to the Handbook, a teacher must complete a request to access their file per the law (School District of Superior, 2017). Personnel Records and State Law policy govern permission to inspect their file. The C.B.A. document has similar provisions concerning access to personnel files. Like the directive in the Handbook, a personnel file shall be made available following a written request from an individual teacher. Files for teachers who are members of the Duluth Federation of Teachers are maintained at the historic old Central High School (Collective Bargaining Agreement, 2019.). Concerning this shared characteristic, one acknowledges the transparency that defines the two documents. Regardless of their position or past professional conduct, a teacher is entitled to scrutinize their file and understand issues their employers have with them.
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Another crucial similarity between the two documents is that they contain recommendations on grievance management in teachers' professional practice. The two documents provide for a grievance procedure that should be followed by all staff in their respective District. Also, each document defines an arbitration mechanism for application in its jurisdiction. A grievance is explained as a dispute regarding the behaviors of teachers in a district. The grievance procedures detailed in the two documents have a similar structure with little variations. For example, each procedure requires a teacher to air their grievances to their supervisors within a specific number of days after the action was committed against them. If the grievance is complex, it will require to go through an arbitration process defined by each District’s document. Nevertheless, other minor peculiarities characterize each document, which differentiates how each District works (Collective Bargaining Agreement, 2019; School District of Superior, 2017). The differences notwithstanding, one acknowledges that both the Handbook and the C.B.A. document recognize that disputes are inevitable, thus creating structured processes to address the same.
Although the two documents allow individual teachers access to their files upon request, there is a difference in some critical aspects such as payment, reproduction, revision, and destruction of a file. For example, the C.B.A. states that a teacher shall inspect their file at their own costs (Collective Bargaining Agreement, 2019). Thus, every time a teacher requests to assess their file's status, they will have to pay. On the other hand, the Handbook does not make such a statement (School District of Superior, 2017). Hence, a teacher reading this document for the first time will have to seek further clarification on the facilitation fee. Second, the C.B.A. document allows union members a right to reproduce any content of their files but at the expense of an individual teacher. Also, a teacher can submit new details for inclusion for any prior information contained in the document. Last, the C.B.A. allows a district to destroy the files within the precincts of law and may also remove from an individual file any false or significantly inaccurate information as provided for by section 199A.20, subdivision 4 (Collective Bargaining Agreement, 2019). However, these additions are not available in the Handbook, necessitating teachers to liaise with relevant offices for clarification.
While the two documents provide for leave, there is a significant difference in their approach, as evidenced by their varying explicitness concerning leave of employees. The Employee Handbook for Teachers in the District of Superior does not provide for the separation of paid and nonpaid leave (School District of Superior, 2017). The Handbook just shows the different types of leaves that it covers and delegates the rest to the District's human resource department and the various policies that define its mandate. Without this differentiation, one acknowledges that the probability of a teacher going for a paid leave is determined by how the H.R. department interprets the relevant policies. Differently, the C.B.A. document explicitly shows the leaves which will be compensated and which cannot be compensated. Although the decision to grant a teacher leave is the prerogative of the human resource manager, an employee will know in advance the category in which their request falls. For example, a teacher going for military, parental leave, or a full-time academic program will not be compensated for the time they will be away (Collective Bargaining Agreement, 2019). Under this C.B.A., a teacher attending an educational conference or taking reasonable time to conduct Union business but with a written request from the Union will be entitled to compensation. The stark differences in how the two documents address leave implies that the two districts have differing approaches in granting leave to teachers.
Summary
A Collective Bargaining Agreement (C.B.A.) and a Handbook for Teachers have similarities and differences, although the purpose of each can augment that of the other. In this paper, the focus was to compare and contrast the Employee Handbook for Teachers in the District of Superior with that of the C.B.A. between Independent School District No. 709 and Duluth Federation of Teachers Local 692, A.F.T. From the analysis, two areas of similarities and two differences were established. First, the two documents allow for the inspection of individual teacher files. Regarding these similarities, a teacher has a right to request in writing access to their employment file and assess its content. Hence, a teacher will be aware of the status of their employment profile. Second, both the Handbook and the C.B.A. document recognize the significance of a grievance and arbitration process, although the two mechanisms have minor variations. However, the C.B.A. differs from the Handbook on modalities of accessing teachers' files. For instance, the C.B.A. explicitly states that a teacher will have to pay for file retrieval expenses while the Handbook does not have this provision. Other elements provided in the C.B.A. but absent in the Handbook include deletion, revision, reproduction, and destruction of certain information in one's file. The last difference between the two is that there is a difference in how the two documents address personnel leave. On the one hand, the Handbook does not provide for separation of paid and unpaid leave while on the other, the C.B.A. addresses this separation. From this analysis, it is apposite to conclude that there is a glaring difference in the two documents' scope.
References
Collective Bargaining Agreement, Independent School District No. 709 Duluth-Duluth Federation of Teachers Local 692, A.F.T. Certified Exclusive Bargaining Agent. (2019). For the Period 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.
School District of Superior. (2017). Handbook for Teachers in the District of Superior . School District of Superior.
