Local 33

The contract became effective on December 16, 2023, and will expire on July 31, 2028.

For Spring 2024 (January-August), individual schools and units will cover the cost of stipend increases. This is a subsidy of approximately $4800 per student.

Beginning in Fall 2024, faculty who fund PhD students on research grants will be responsible for covering the full cost of the new stipend rates.

Expansions to fringe benefits (health, dental, vision) for PhD students will continue to be funded by schools, not by individual faculty members.

No, the contract has a strong management and academic rights provision, ensuring that academic and curricular maters remain within the university’s discretion.

As a result, faculty will maintain oversight of the curricular requirements of degree programs and continue to be responsible for evaluating the academic progress of their students, including:

• Determining who is taught, what is taught, and how it is taught.
• Determining students’ academic progress, including but not limited to completion of degree requirements, graduation standards, assessment of student grades, and research productivity.
• Determining standards related to academic integrity.
• Creating, eliminating, or modifying education and research programs.
• Determining grading policies and practices.
• Establishing, maintaining, modifying, or enforcing standards of education, research and scholarship, and academic performance.

Graduate programs and individual faculty members are urged to provide clear and transparent guidance on all academic expectations and to document these through advising guidelines, mentoring agreements, or lab manuals. Resources to develop such documents are available on the Graduate School’s website.

Teaching fellowships offered through the Teaching Fellow Program are designated at the TF 10 (up to 10 hours per week on average) or TF 20 (up to 20 hours per week on average) level. All other teaching positions should state the expected number of hours in the job description and appointment letter.*

The number of hours a research assistant performs is a combination of their efforts for their own academic advancement and their employment efforts for the benefit of the university; therefore, determining which hours are used for academic research versus work effort can be difficult. Purely work-related tasks should be identified where appropriate. The total number of hours devoted to “work-related” responsibilities, independent of academic obligations, for research assistants must be fewer than 20 hours per week, however. Overall, faculty should explain and document the typical number of hours in a week needed to make academic progress and complete degree requirements in their field and how that schedule is likely to fluctuate depending on experiments, or time needed for classes.

*More information on appointment letters is provided below.

As long as the work they will perform is not covered by the Local 33 union contract, graduate workers may be asked and choose to assist with other activities. For example, students should not be asked to voluntarily perform lab work functions or teach. However, they can be asked to volunteer for departmental committees or organizing departmental events.

Paid Time Off (PTO) is prorated for salaried research assistants who are not employed or enrolled for a full academic year. PTO is adjusted based on the actual terms of employment/enrollment based on the following breakdown:

• Fall Term (Sept 1 - Jan 14): 12 comp days, including 10 holidays and 2 PTO days.
• Spring Term (Jan 15 - May 31): 12 comp days, including 3 holidays and 9 PTO days.
• Summer Term (June 1 - Aug 31): 6 comp days, including 2 holidays and 4 PTO days.
• Fall & Spring Only: 24 PTO days usable between Sept 1 and May 31.
• Summer & Fall Only: 18 PTO days usable between June 1 and Jan 14.
• Spring & Summer Only: 18 PTO days usable between Jan 15 and Aug 31.
• Fall & Summer Only: 18 PTO days usable between Sept 1 - Jan 14 and June 1 - Aug 31.

Salaried research assistants who received prorated PTO may use the 15 PTO days associated with official university holidays on alternate dates. However, if alternate dates are used, the salaried research assistant will be required to work on the actual holiday.

If a student’s unsatisfactory performance or unapproved absence is causing them to fall behind academically, there should be a conversation with the DGS and/or academic dean. Typically, the faculty member should have a conversation with the student, document the issue and the plan for remediation with deadlines in writing, including by email, and then follow up as needed. Decisions about academic standing or dismissal from a degree program do not constitute work discipline and are not subject to the union’s “just cause” standard or the grievance procedure. For reference, ‘just cause’ is the contractual standard used to determine whether employment- related discipline issued to union workers is warranted.

If you cannot determine whether a performance concern is employment or academic related, reach out to Labor Relations for guidance to determine the appropriate course of action.

The supervisor’s role is to respond to grievances as the first step of the process. This involves engaging in a conversation with the graduate worker with the goal to informally resolve the raised concern. The graduate worker may request a union steward be present at such conversations, and the supervisor may have another representative from their department or Human Resources present. The supervisor must provide their answer to the grievance within three working days of the meeting.

Academic issues including but not limited to graduation standards, assessment of student work and grades, and determinations as to students’ academic progress including but not limited to the completion of degree requirements are outside of the scope of the agreement and cannot be grieved.

Yes, the union may file a grievance alleging a violation of the Fair Treatment provision. Any such grievance may be filed (1) at any time while the complaint is being processed, (2) up to 60 days after the complaint process is complete, or (3) up to one year after the incident giving rise to the alleged violation.

Please note that Fair Treatment grievances will be held in abeyance pending the completion of existing internal processes and procedures. If, however, the internal processes are not fully completed within 90 calendar days of the receipt of a complaint the union may activate and pursue the grievance.

It is important to note that graduate workers are entitled to union representation at all points during the Fair Treatment processes.

Graduate workers may request to work remotely or hybrid in-person/remote on a temporary or permanent basis. All such requests must be submitted to their supervisor and reviewed by Human Resources. Approvals must come from the Dean of the applicable school, or their designee.

All teaching (lectures, seminars, and sections) is expected to take place in person except in special cases that have already received approval. If a teaching fellow requires remote teaching arrangements, please contact Pam Schirmeister, GSAS and Yale College Deputy Dean, for guidance. Please further note that all graduate workers who perform laboratory-based work are not eligible to work remotely.

If serving in bargaining unit position, stewards may request to be excused from work (release time) to perform such duties. Release time must be taken in a manner that is least disruptive to operations, including teaching and research responsibilities of the steward and the graduate worker with whom they are working. This could mean that the steward would need to make up missed research time.

No. The contract includes an acknowledgement that access to certain spaces, such as laboratories, may be restricted for health and safety reasons as well as the confidential nature of the work performed in such areas.

The Local 33 contract requires the university to notify the union of the dates, times, and locations of any centralized orientation sessions for graduate workers conducted by the university or any department, school, or program. It further provides that the union shall have up to one (1) hour but no less than thirty (30) minutes at any centralized orientation sessions to make a presentation to graduate workers about union membership, activities, contracts, and any related maters. There is no contractual requirement that the university allow union stewards to atend recruitment events, nor is there a prohibition against it.

They must be held during business hours or at a mutually convenient time.

Both faculty members and graduate workers may schedule them.

No, faculty supervisors are NOT obligated to create and/or use employment-related evaluations or evaluative processes to assess job performance. With that said, if a faculty supervisor uses employment-related evaluations or evaluative processes to assess a graduate worker’s job performance, they must provide notice, in writing or electronically, to the graduate worker describing the evaluation and process prior to the graduate worker’s date of hire.