Last week’s tip was about Weingarten rights. The following notice went out to faculty at San Bernardino as a reminder to all faculty about their rights when facing potential discipline. While the notice is specific to the San Bernardino campus, the rights and principles articulated apply to all faculty at all campuses in the CSU.

Dear Administrators and Unit 3 Faculty,

The California Faculty Association and the Trustees of the California State University (San Bernardino) have reached a settlement in an unfair practice charge involving the right of employees to have representation in investigatory meetings, interviews, or proceedings from which it is reasonable to believe discipline may result.

This communication is a joint effort by the California Faculty Association and the California State University, San Bernardino campus to educate the CSUSB community about the right to representation afforded to employees in some circumstances under the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act. In particular, employees have a right to request representation when they are required to attend an investigatory meeting, interview, or proceeding in which they are asked to provide information that they reasonably believe may result in discipline.

Where an employee reasonably believes that an investigatory meeting, interview, or proceeding may result in discipline, the employee may designate a representative in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement or other applicable laws or regulations and the University may not object to representation from that designated representative.

 Where an employee reasonably believes that an investigatory meeting, interview, or proceeding may result in discipline, and the employee’s designated representative is unavailable to attend, the employee may request that the meeting, interview, or proceeding be rescheduled.  Such a request shall not be unreasonably denied. The University may consider whether another representative is available in determining whether or not a denial of a rescheduling request would be unreasonable.

Where an employee reasonably believes that an investigatory meeting, interview, or proceeding may result in discipline, and the university has unreasonably denied a request by the employee to reschedule the meeting, interview, or proceeding the employee has the right to refuse to talk or answer questions at the meeting, interview, or proceeding. The University cannot and will not discipline employees for any such refusals.

If you or someone you know needs advocacy and assistance from CFA, contact your CFA chapter.

  • Browse the faculty contract.
  • See previous Faculty Rights Tips on a range of topics in our contract.
  • If you have questions about a faculty rights tip or would like to suggest a tip, please write us at cfa@calfac.org with the subject line “Faculty Rights Tip.”
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