Dear colleague,
Our raise for this year is showing up in our paychecks this week—but the Rutgers administration made an absolute mess of it. The problems are especially outrageous for our adjunct colleagues.
We spent yesterday demanding answers from University Human Resources and trying to figure out what’s going on. Late in the day, the head of UHR acknowledged the problems and promised a message would be sent out this morning; so far, it has not been sent. We will continue pressing UHR to fix these problems and communicating with you about their progress and any information you should know.
Background: Thanks to our contract campaign and strike, we won significant salary increases, especially for adjunct faculty, TAs and GAs, and postdocs. Because the raise for the current year is retroactive to July 1 of last year (and September 1 of last year for TAs and GAs on an academic-year appointment, you should have received an additional payment for the retroactive pay—or, in the case of grad workers, a second paycheck for the retro pay.
For full-time faculty, TA/GAs, and EOF counselors, the calculation of retro pay should be simple—everyone in those ranks got a flat-dollar raise added to base salary for this first year of the contract, and they are owed retro pay for the period since July 1 (or September 1) when that salary increase wasn’t paid. You can find the exact amounts that anyone in those groups should see in their checks this week.
- Retro Pay Mess Explained for Full-Time Faculty
- Retro Pay Mess Explained for TAs and GAs
- Retro Pay Mess Explained for Postdocs
- Retro Pay Mess Explained for EOF Counselors
For some unexplained reason, management seems to be off by a small amount, one way or the other, for many of us, and a large amount for many others. We will insist that the administration get the numbers right for everyone. But we want to concentrate on anyone whose checks are off by a lot. If your check is off by more than a couple of dollars from the amounts shown above, please fill out this form.
The form also asks about any other appointments or payments that might be listed on your check—in particular, retro pay for anyone who taught in the Winter 2023 session. If you fill out the form, please give us any other information you think will help us figure out what’s going on—so we can insist UHR fix this mess.
We’re proud of the gains we made in this new contract, especially the significant pay increases and additional job security for our most vulnerable and lowest-paid colleagues. Thank you for everything you did during our strike and contract campaign to win a better Rutgers.
But with their retro pay mess, the administration is again showing why we will have to stay mobilized and ready to fight to defend our contract victories.
In solidarity,
Becky and Todd
Rebecca Givan, President, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Todd Wolfson, General Vice President, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
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