Penn College, PCEA Agree on Two-Year Contract Extension

Pennsylvania College of Technology and the Penn College Education Association which includes full-time teaching faculty, librarians and counselors employed by the college have agreed to extend their current employment contract through the 2008-09 academic year.

At its meeting Thursday, the Penn College Board of Directors approved the extension, the third one enacted for the initial August 2000 agreement. PCEA members voted to ratify the extension on Dec. 13. Previous extensions to the agreement were approved in 2002 and 2004.

The extension calls for annual increases of 4.5 percent for the salary-system pool in both 2007-08 and 2008-09.

In addition, PCEA members will begin sharing the cost of health-insurance premiums with the college. In 2007-08, the employees will pay 10.75 percent of the per-employee premium costs; in 2008-09, they will pay 17 percent. As specified by the previous extension, employees will each pay $504 toward health-insurance premium costs in 2006-07.

The actual amount of the premiums will be determined before April 1 of the then-current academic year. If the health-insurance premiums rise sufficiently in any year to surpass the salary-system-pool increases, employees are guaranteed a minimum 1-percent salary increment.

The extension calls for overload teaching rates to increase in 2008-09. The credit-hour rate will increase from $830 to $865; the contact-hour rate (for lab courses) will increase from $553 to $578.The dental-insurance coverage provided by the college will increase in 2006-07 under the extension.

"We are grateful to the members of Penn College Education Association for their willingness to extend this agreement," said Penn College President Davie Jane Gilmour. "Our excellent faculty play a fundamental role in fulfilling the institution's mission. By working cooperatively to complete these negotiations in timely fashion, all of us can now focus our attention on the most important task at hand educating students."

"I know of no other institution that has had three extensions to an existing contract," said PCEA President James E. Temple. "This extension was possible due to the trust the Penn College Education Association has in the Penn College Board of Directors and the association's excellent working relationship with the executive leadership of the institution."

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