An ongoing labor complaint against the university administration by a graduate student union remains unsettled. 

Graduate Assistants United filed unfair labor practice charges against the SIU Board of Trustees after many months of waiting for the university to negotiate time allowed to work.

The complaint filed Feb. 10 with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board alleges since Aug. 12 the board and administration has refused to “bargain in good faith,” regarding graduate assistant contracts.

GAU President Matt Ryg said the charges were filed because the university violated the collective bargaining agreement within the graduate assistants’ contracts, specifically regarding full-time equivalency rates, or the maximum number of hours a graduate assistant is allowed to work in a week.

“It’s only recently that they stopped going to the table to talk about it,” Ryg said. “They wanted to sit down and resolve it and we were going to schedule a meeting and they kind of backed out.”

Chancellor Rita Cheng said 1 percent of graduate assistants are affected by the cut. Ryg said it affects about 35 graduate assistants out of more than 1,600 in fall 2012.

Dennis Lunt, head of GAU’s membership committee, said the university capped graduate assistants’ work hours at 50 percent of full-time, or 20 hours a week, to avoid Affordable Care Act provisions. The cap was 75 percent, or 30 hours a week, before Aug. 12.

Cheng said the ACA states only employees who work more than 20 hours a week are subject to employer covered health insurance.

She said the national standard for graduate assistantship is no more than 20 hours a week.

“Graduate schools across the country and their associations have said that once somebody hits over 50 percent (20 hours) then they’re really not a student,” Cheng said. “They’re spending more time than they should on their employment.”

Cheng said the university decides how many hours its employees work.

“Our position is that we are the employer and we can set hours for employees,” she said.

Cheng said the university will be fined millions of dollars if one of the graduate assistants exceeds 20 hours a week without employer health insurance coverage.

“If we don’t (make the cut), we get heavy fines,” she said. “The graduate dean has decided to enforce what should have been our practice.”

Susan Ford, interim dean of the graduate school, could not be reached for comment as she is overseas recruiting.

Lunt said the majority of graduate assistants work 10 to 20 hours a week.

“Our contract stipulates – and we bargained for this last time we had a bargaining session – (we can work) anywhere between 25 and 75 (percent),” he said. “We did that for several reasons. Some departments offer 75 percent contracts to students that don’t have financial support from elsewhere. This would be particularly important for international GAs who are not allowed to work off campus.”

Lunt said most graduate assistants are offered two positions and must choose either the academically intensive course to work 10 hours a week or the financially intensive path to work 20 hours a week. He said the 75 percent provision allowed them to be further involved in academics and work.

Stipend levels for graduate assistants vary by department, and Ryg said his nearly $850 cut would make a difference to him and his fiancée, who are both graduate students.

Gene A. Holt, IEA’s associate general counsel, represents GAU. Lucas Crater, SIU’s interim general counsel, represents the board.

Crater said in an email Tuesday, his office “is unable to comment regarding ongoing litigation, disputes, and the like.”