Announced during a virtual press conference on April 4, two Long Beach City College (LBCC) educators filed a class-action lawsuit charging LBCC with violating minimum wage laws with the way it pays part-time faculty, in a case that is likely to shine a light on the lack of pay parity for part-time instructors at California’s community colleges. The plaintiffs, Seija Rohkea and Karen Roberts, described the many additional duties their teaching assignments require beyond the classroom time for which they are actually paid.
Some community colleges unlawfully treat part-time adjunct instructors as exempt from minimum wage laws. Part-time faculty do not earn enough money to be exempt from California’s minimum wage requirements. These colleges pay part-time instructors an hourly rate only for each hour teaching in the classroom in front of students, despite requiring these instructors to work many hours performing teaching-related work outside of the classroom.
“My hope is this lawsuit will not just rectify the situation for my colleagues at Long Beach City College, but that it will raise awareness of a systemic problem that impacts thousands of part-time community college instructors throughout the state,” said Rohkea, an art history instructor at both Long Beach City College and Cypress College.
“It’s long past time for adjunct faculty to be treated fairly and compensated for all the work that goes into teaching a community college class.”
– Seija Rohkea, Art History...
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