The following is a summary of the changes negotiated to the CGE-OSU Collective Bargaining Agreement. The CGE Bargaining Team will present the full changes at the Ratification Meeting on Monday, October 17th at 5:00pm in Westminster House McLean Room.

Health Insurance Premiums: OSU’s contribution to employee and family insurance will increase from 85% to 87% beginning this September. OSU’s contribution will increase to 88% in September 2017, to 89% in September 2018, and, finally, to 90% in September 2019.

Health Insurance Enrollment: Graduate Employees will be automatically enrolled in health insurance beginning their first term of employment. If they wish to waive insurance, they must submit a waiver form as before. If they wish to enroll family members, they must submit an enrollment form for family members as before. Employees and family members will be automatically enrolled in insurance in subsequent years and over the summer.

Summer Health Insurance: Graduate Employees enrolled in the Pacific Source plan will automatically have 1/9 of summer premiums deducted from each academic year paycheck, October through June. This will allow for automatic summer enrollment and spread out the cost of summer health insurance premiums. For employees who do not have employment over all 9 months of this period, the remainder of the cost of summer premiums will be covered by OSU. Employees who do not use their summer coverage will have the pre-deducted summer coverage amount reimbursed to them in June.

SEVIS and Visa Fees: International Graduate Employees may have up to $360 of the cost of visa and/or SEVIS fees reimbursed to them over the course of their graduate career.

Minimum FTE: Effective Fall 2017, the minimum FTE will increase from 0.2 to 0.3, providing a significant increase to the wages of the lowest earning Graduate Employees.

Summer Assistantships: The minimum enrollment for those on assistantship over summer session will drop from 9 credit hours to 3 credit hours.

Length & Notice of Appointment: All assistantships will be for the duration of the academic year or longer, unless a reason for a shorter appointment is noted on the appointment letter.

Notice of Assignment: Graduate Employees will receive a notice of work assignment and position description 15 days prior to the start of term, unless the position became available within that time period.

Work Space: Graduate Employees’ work spaces must receive the same level of cleaning and upkeep as other spaces used for similar purposes. Departments must arrange for private meeting space where Graduate Employees can hold office hours.

Safety: Departments are responsible for providing adequate safety training and equipment, including that needed for the safe execution of field work.