HIGHLIGHTS OF TENTATIVE AGREEMENT SPOC-UAW
- Highest minimum salaries for postdocs in the country, plus 3% anniversary increases and a $3,500 increase at the start of the 3rd year
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- Minimum salaries will be adjusted for years of experience
- Most postdocs will receive an immediate 10-20% increase backdated to 90 days before ratification and a 30% increase over the duration of the contract
- The minimum salary will increase by 24% to $72,500 upon ratification and will increase again to $73,588 on July 1, 2024 and to $74,692 on July 1, 2025 to keep up with cost-of-living
- Minimum salaries will be adjusted for years of experience
- Parental leave of six weeks at 100% pay for both birth and non-birth parents from the first day of employment in addition to 6-8 weeks medical leave after birth
- Yearly $50,000 emergency fund (up to $150,000 over the life of the agreement), to cover expenses related to childcare, housing, and other forms of financial hardship
- First-ever housing article in a postdoc contract guaranteeing 3 years of subsidized housing for incoming Postdoctoral Fellows
- Greater job security including “just cause” protections against arbitrary discipline and termination
- Stronger protections against discrimination, harassment, and abusive conduct, including immediate and supportive measures and extended timelines for reporting harassment, pregnancy accommodations, and gender neutral facilities
- New rights for international researchers, including protected time off for visa renewal, up to $1250 in reimbursements for visa-related expenses, and an option for extended DS2019 work authorization beyond appointment length
- A strong grievance procedure that allows us for the first time to enforce our rights under the contract with access to a neutral third-party arbitrator
- Relocation payments of $1500 for incoming Postdoctoral Fellows
- Protected rights to authorship and intellectual property and for open access publication fees
- Removal of the term “Trainee” from the definition of a postdoctoral appointment
- Increase in paid time off to 20 vacation days plus 4 personal days
See below for a complete summary. You may click hyperlinks to read the full language for each topic and can read the entire tentative agreement here.
Workplace Rights
Appointment Security
Appointments and Reappointments
Discipline and Dismissal
Grievance and Arbitration
Employment Records
Health and Safety
Intellectual Property
International Researcher Rights
Job Posting
Performance Reviews
Professional Development
Prohibition Against Discrimination and Harassment
Research Integrity
Workload
Workspace and Materials
Compensation and other Benefits
Childcare
Ensures access to childcare centers partnered with Mount Sinai and sponsored backup childcare programs; ensures access to Dependent care Flexible Spending Account (FSA) for childcare expenses.
Compensation
Increases the previous minimum salary of $58,661 by 23 – 36%, including an experience-based scale starting at $72,500 and reaching $80,000 in the 5th year. Fellows near or already above the new minimums, shall receive a 3% increase. Increases will be backdated to 90 days prior to ratification. This article also establishes contractually-guaranteed salary increases of 3% based on anniversary or reappointment date. The minimum salary for incoming postdocs will increase to $73,588 on July 1, 2024 and to $74,692 on July 1, 2025. On the start of the third year of service, the base salary will be increased by $3,500 for support with long-term financial planning, in recognition of a retirement benefit.
Emergency Support Fund
Provides access to a support fund of $50,000 per year to cover postdocs expenses related to childcare, housing and other financial hardship.
Holidays
Secures nine (9) paid holidays per year, plus four (4) personal days which can be used for additional time off; ensures right to observe religious and/or cultural holidays; establishes right to alternate days off if project requires postdocs to work on a holiday.
Housing
Secures guaranteed housing for the first 3 years of postdoc; caps rent increases to 2% per year; ensures first rental payment and security deposit shall not be due until postdocs receive their first two paychecks; introduces creation of Postdoctoral Housing Committee; ensures right to move apartments and timely apartment repairs and service.
Insurance Benefits
Ensures that Postdocs continue to receive health and related benefits on the same basis as currently offered and prevents changes to benefits unless Mount Sinai changes benefits for similarly-situated employees.
Leaves of Absence
Codifies and expands on existing access to paid leaves of absence, including medical leave, parental leave, and bereavement leave, and provides for the first time a visa renewal leave. Postdoctoral Fellows will now have access to 15 days sick leave from the first day of their employment, six (6) weeks of fully-paid parental leave for both the birth and non-birth parents from the first day of employment, in addition to 6-8 weeks of paid childbirth leave, and the option for an extended childcare leave. Postdocs will also now have the right to reasonable requests for longer bereavement leave when, for example, a leave may involve international travel.
Parking and Transportation
Guarantees bike parking in convenient proximity to Mount Sinai; protects access to shuttle services and transportation reimbursement initiative, which allows pre-tax payment of transportation expenses.
Recreation
Ensures that Sinai will provide access to recreation discounts and benefits on the same terms as other Mount Sinai employees.
Relocation Assistance
Provides a $1500 relocation payment for newly hired postdocs.
Retirement
Maintains the right to contribute to a Mount Sinai Health System 403(b) Retirement Plan on the same basis as currently offered.
Tax Assistance
Ensures that Postdocs shall receive timely responses and corrections if Mount Sinai withholds more taxes than required; international Postdocs shall receive tax treaty information and access to tax treaty information.
Training
Provides paid time and pay associated fees for postdocs to attend required or supervisor-approved, work-related training, orientations, workshops, scientific meetings and courses.
Travel
Ensures travel advances, direct travel funding, or timely reimbursement of expenses for required travel and access to travel insurance
Vacation
Secures 20 days of vacation time per appointment year earned at 1.67 days per month; to be used within one year; unused vacation days do not carry over between appointments but can be paid out upon termination of appointment.
Wellness
Maintains access to the 92nd Street Y, Employee Assistance Program, Student and Trainee Mental Health Program, and a 24/7 support and crisis hotline as currently offered.
Workplace Rights
Ensures continuation of benefits and compensation for the duration of a postdoc’s appointment unless the postdoc is terminated for just cause or voluntarily resigns.
Appointments
Ensures that appointments are a minimum of 1 year and renewable for a total of 3 years. Longer appointments up to 5 years are subject to agreement by Postdoc and PI; Sinai will provide a longer term DS2019 form to support J-1 visa processing where sufficient funding exists; ensures that all researchers receive written appointment notice with basic information about the position, including summary of anticipated duties, URL for benefits information, housing information, tax-related resources, and for the Union contract.
Discipline and Discharge
Improves postdoc’s job security by establishing “just cause” protections against arbitrary discipline or termination. With “just cause” protections, Mount Sinai would have to establish good cause for a postdoc to be fired or disciplined.
Employment Records
Establishes researchers’ rights to access, copy, and add comments to employment files maintained by Mount Sinai.
Health and Safety
Codifies in our contract Mount Sinai’s legal obligations regarding health and safety, thereby improving researchers’ ability to protect ourselves from working in unsafe or hazardous conditions including: the right to grieve health and safety problems; the right to relevant health and safety training; provision of proper equipment; protections from being assigned work that poses an immediate danger; provision of proper equipment; protection against retaliation for raising health and safety concerns; and the establishment of a joint Union-Mount Sinai health and safety committee.
Grievance and Arbitration
Establishes a timely and fair process for resolving alleged violations of our contract, which gives us equal footing to enforce the terms we have negotiated. While the contract encourages informal resolution of disputes, postdocs and the Union also have the right to take an unresolved dispute to a neutral arbitrator if a dispute cannot be resolved at earlier steps of the process.
Intellectual Property
Ensures that Postdocs have rights to authorship and intellectual property. Establishes grievable protections against retaliation for pursuing or participating in complaints. Provides for open access publication fees.
International Researcher Rights
Establishes new rights and benefits for international researchers: Postdoctoral Fellows will be reimbursed up to $1,250 for visa stamp renewal related travel and fees; Mount Sinai will make reasonable efforts to allow a researcher to work remotely if unable to return to the US for reasons outside their control; Mount Sinai will hold a position open for at least 60 days in cases where the researcher has been unable to obtain work authorization; Mount Sinai will make best efforts to work with the Union to help a researcher who has proper visa and work authorization documentation but has been barred entry to the US.
Job Posting
Ensures that Mount Sinai shall post appointment opportunities openly and transparently, including relevant information about salary and benefits.
Performance Reviews
Ensures that PIs may provide Postdoctoral Fellows with an annual formal performance review to serve as a comprehensive assessment of their research progress and achievements in the previous year.
Professional Development
Maintains support for training and professional development programs including protected research time; an annual comprehensive program of career development opportunities; the right to work with their PI/mentor to develop and discuss an Individual Development Plan (IDP); eligibility to apply for $500 per year for subsidized travel and registration for conferences, workshops, training or other relevant professional development opportunities.
Prohibition against Discrimination and Harassment
Establishes new rights for researchers to address discrimination and harassment (including sexual harassment, bullying or abusive conduct); the right to take an unresolved complaint to a neutral arbitrator; the right to union representation during any complaint or grievance process; protection from retaliation from filing a complaint; interim measures to protect postdocs during the investigative process; pregnancy and disability accommodations; gender neutral facilities.
Research Integrity
Clarifies that Postdoctoral Fellows have rights under the Mount Sinai’s Ethical Practices in Research policy.
Workload
Establishes protections against arbitrary, unreasonable work schedules as professional, salaried employees; while our workweek is normally at least 37.5 hours, schedules must be ”reasonable and related to the research needs of the project”.
Workspace and Materials
Commits Mount Sinai to provide workspace, facilities, equipment, materials and access to the internet and other network resources necessary to perform assigned duties; also ensures “timely reimbursement” for any employee approved to purchase required materials, equipment or services.
Union and Management Rights
Codifies recognition of the Union and describes the unit represented by the Union, consistent with our National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) case in 2022; commits Mount Sinai to continue discussing how the parties can engage in collective bargaining over terms and conditions of employment for individuals who receive no salary or stipend remuneration from Mount Sinai.
Severability
Ensures that if any provision of the contract is found to be unlawful, the rest of the contract remains in effect and the parties will negotiate with respect to the provision found to be unlawful.
Union Access, Rights and Activity
Ensures that Mount Sinai provides our Union with basic information about employees in the bargaining unit; provides Union time and space to orient new employees about their rights under the contract and membership in our Union; provides reasonable time for Postdoc union representatives to handle grievances; and provides reasonable time to attend Union meetings. This article helps us have a strong union.
Union Security
Ensures that the Union has sufficient resources to engage in effective representation. Researchers would have an obligation to become a Union member and pay dues or pay a fee to share the cost of representation. Dues provide the resources for helping the Union handle grievances and to engage in other types of advocacy.
Joint Union-Management Committee
Establishes a joint committee to meet at least four times per year to discuss matters affecting Postdocs that are not related to any active grievances.
No Strikes/No Lockout
Establishes that during the life of the contract, the Union and Mount Sinai agree they will resolve disputes under the contract through the process in the contract. To that end, the union agrees that it will not encourage or sanction a strike and Mount Sinai agrees it will not lock out employees while the contract is in effect.
Management Rights
Reiterates Mount Sinai’s right to manage the institution so long as their actions do not violate provisions of our agreement. This is a standard article in union contracts.
Policies and Procedures
Clarifies that the contract would govern in case of conflicts with Mount Sinai policy and that the Union would receive notice in case Mount Sinai policy changes impact the working conditions of Postdocs.
Effective Date and Duration
Establishes a contract duration of three years, expiring June 30, 2026.