SRC to vote on changing rules for layoffs of non-union employees

This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.

One item on today’s School Reform Commission agenda is a resolution that will repeal some job protections for non-unionized employees.

In part, it reads:

"This resolution repeals all existing policies and procedures relating to Working Conditions and Grievance Procedures for non-represented employees. It replaces them with the policy that reductions in force of non-represented employees will be made on the basis of the needs of the School District."

The resolution also says that any layoffs, or "reductions in force," will be made in compliance with the District’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy.

The rationale for the resolution is "to afford greater flexibility" in layoffs, considered inevitable given sharp declines in federal and state aid and a projected $465 billion budget gap.

The full resolution, A-22, was provided to the Notebook in the wake of a Common Pleas Court ruling that complete SRC resolutions should be public documents once they are introduced and before they are voted on.