FGCU’s Board of Trustees (BOT) has voted to increase the pay raise for faculty and staff making it the largest faculty pay increase in a decade.
According to the Sept. 12 BOT meeting minutes, “Chair Gable stated the standing report from the United Faculty of Florida (UFF)/FGCU Chapter was being made in conjunction with the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) provision, which provided UFF an opportunity to speak to FGCU BOT agenda items that affected wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment of the employees.”
In September, the FGCU Board of Trustees approved a 5% across-the-board increase for in-unit faculty, $300,000 to alleviate compression and inversion and the introduction of a merit-pay process that would reward faculty for going above and beyond and everything that they do for the campus and students. Compression is when employees make the same or similar to higher ranking employees.
During the Sept. 12 BOT meeting, there was a standing report offered by the UFF Chapter President Carolynne Gischel.
Gischel was also the person who was representing teachers that spoke at the BOT meeting.
A bargaining team was used for FGCU when negotiating pay increases. There were surveys conducted during the negotiation process regularly to ensure the bargaining team was representing the faculties’ wishes respectively and ensuring their concerns and requests were expressed correctly.
“The faculty felt undervalued, however, the faculty was looking forward to the new university administration and working collaboratively with administration to increase faculty morale, improve terms and conditions of employment, and to help improve student success,” Gischel said.
The BOT unanimously approved the amendment of Article 23 to the 2021-2024 Collective Bargaining Agreement for FGCU BOT and the UFF/FGCU Chapter.
According to the Sept. 12 BOT meeting minutes, 299 faculty voted, which at the time was approximately 56 percent of the faculty who were eligible to vote. The president of the UFF/FGCU chapter reported that 282 in-unit faculty voted “yes,” and 17 voted “no.”
The merit pay process that was introduced for the faculty bargaining this year has not been finalized.
In August, FGCU announced that, for their staff, they would be increasing eligible employees’ base salary by 5% with a max individual increase capped at $10,000 annually. According to University Communications & Media Relations Coordinator, Pamela McCabe, there was also no vote because they do not bargain terms. Instead, the compensation adjustments were completed automatically.
According to the FGCU regulation 5.024 Bonus Plan, the bonuses are based on performance, recruitment and retention. The salary increases depend on performance and budget availability.
In August, the university announced it is moving toward a merit-based pay system for high-achieving staff members. However, FGCU may provide special incentive payments or bonuses to regular full-time employees that are in good standing and are classified as out-of-unit faculty, executive service, administrative and professional and support personnel and not governed by any applicable collective bargaining agreements.
According to President Timur in the Sept. 12 minutes, she said this year’s budget allocation process, salary compensation and the bargaining process were done with a sense of urgency to provide financial relief to staff and faculty. She indicated she was proud of the compensation package offered to faculty, as it represented the largest pay increase FGCU had offered faculty in at least a decade.
