The Pasadena City College Faculty Association (PCCFA) is proud to announce a resounding legal settlement with the Pasadena Area Community College District, marking the conclusion of a years-long legal effort to hold the District’s prior administration accountable for the District’s unlawful cancellation of the Winter Intersession. This settlement—totaling over $4.9 million in make-whole relief and full payment of PCCFA’s attorney’s fees—is a major victory for faculty rights and collective bargaining.

The settlement comes as a direct result of the California Public Employment Relations Board’s (PERB) decision in PCCFA v. Pasadena Area CCD, where the Administrative Law Judge found that the District had unlawfully changed the academic calendar, failed to negotiate with PCCFA, and engaged in improper direct dealing with faculty. PERB ordered the District to do the following:

1. Return to the status quo calendar, restoring winter session;
2. Negotiate with FA over any proposed changes to the calendar;
3. Make faculty whole for any losses, such as lost winter teaching assignments, plus 7% interest;
4. Reimburse FA for all attorney’s fees and expenses incurred, plus 7%;

The PCCFA and District already reached agreement on restoring winter session and negotiating future changes, and this Agreement, adopted yesterday by the District’s Board of Trustees, finalizes backpay and interest for eligible impacted faculty. PERB determined a backpay methodology where certain faculty would be eligible for make-whole relief, provided those faculty (a) taught in Winter 2021, (b) were not able to mitigate losses by teaching additional courses in Summer 2022 or Summer 2023, and (c) who remained employed at the District during the periods when Winter session was cancelled. The District provided information regarding faculty intersession workload, and based on these data, the parties were able to calculate faculty eligibility and backpay, along with 7% daily-compounded interest applied from the time of loss through August 1, 2023.

Payments to eligible impacted faculty will be provided directly by the District over the next three months, using the PERB-approved formula. This victory comes at no cost to PCCFA’s dues-paying members, as we received 100% reimbursement for our legal fees and expenses.

We are very pleased to have resolved this matter, and look forward to working with the District’s administration on the final steps of this process.

– PCC Faculty Association Board