The University of South Florida reinstated the three vacation days it required employees to take in December after a union arbitrator ruled it violated the faculty bargaining agreement.
USF is reinstating the days for all employees, even though the ruling applied only to members of the faculty union, USF Provost Ralph Wilcox said in an e-mail.
In May 2008, the university decided to close for seven days in December, and it designated three of those as vacation days.
"Given the necessity to reduce financial obligations and balance the budget, the mandatory annual leave was considered a far better option for employees than the use of furloughs and/or layoffs imposed by other universities," Wilcox said in the e-mail.
The faculty union filed a grievance last month, saying the vacation decision violated the agreement that gave faculty members the right to take vacation when they wished. An arbitrator ruled in the union's favor last week.
Faculty union President Sherman Dorn said the university made the right choice to apply the arbitration decision to all employees.
But he said the administration's e-mail announcement to the staff "tries to paper over the fundamental mistake it made, to try to dismiss the bargaining authority of the faculty union and other employee unions."
Wilcox did note in his e-mail that USF's budget problems have eased.
"Our actions last year, together with the infusion of federal budget stabilization funds, have made it possible for USF to enter the next academic year without the kind of programmatic and personnel cuts that others have endured."
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