Postdoc Union Bargaining Committee (l-r Ryan Quinn, Maria Errea, Anais Surkin)
The postdoc union’s bargaining committee presented management with six proposals last week and six proposals this week, ranging from “housekeeping” edits to significant, substantive changes to the contract.
On Wednesday, June 8, 2016, the union team presented a proposal to bring postdoctoral researcher wages up to the Department of Labor’s new minimum for exempt employees, which will go into effect in December 2016. The union’s proposal is to bring the lowest-paid postdocs up to the new rate, and bring up the other salary minima by the same percentage. We had a productive discussion of both parties’ views on how to address the new DOL rule, and expect that issue to continue to be one of the main points of contention in future bargaining sessions.
For more on the DOL’s new standards for exempt employees, check out: