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Assistant Vice Chancellor for Employee Relations (MP)

This title is in the unclassified service and is designated Managerial/Confidential. Appointees to Managerial/Confidential titles serve at the pleasure of the chief administrative officer and are not represented for collective negotiations.

Positions in this series are assigned to university-wide personnel administration, collective negotiation, employee relations and equal employment opportunity programs of a varied, complex and extensive nature, for both the professional and civil service.

ASSISTANT VICE CHANCELLOR FOR EMPLOYEE RELATIONS, serves as the Employee Relations Officer for the university system, with authority to act for the university in establishing, developing, implementing and overseeing a total employee relations program for the professional and civil service; does related work as required. As part of the university's staff management team,

• recommends employee relations policies of the university, shares in the formulation of those policies and has responsibility for implementing them;
• bears special responsibility for training university managers to develop their competence to deal with employee relations issues and for fostering the development of management consciousness and identification in university management;
• serves as the university's chief negotiator in consulting and negotiating with three (CSEA, APSU, AFL-CIO and UUP) recognized employee negotiating unions;
• determines areas of program subject to collective negotiations and guides staff in securing cooperation of employee organizations in regard to employee relations policies;
• where appropriate, enters into written agreements with employee representatives;
• periodically meets with Chancellor and his staff to keep them informed of developments in this area;
• works closely with the Governor's Office of Employee Relations in administering State and departmental employee relations policies and programs and in fostering constructive relationships with employee organizations;
• bears immediate responsibility for keeping the Governor's Office of Employee Relations and the Legislature informed about university employee relations activities and presents the university's point of view, in dealings with the Governor's Office of Employee Relations;
• upon request by the Governor's Office of Employee Relations, serves on State-wide and other bargaining teams on behalf of State management and participates in special tasks related to collective negotiations at the State level;
• coordinates the university's resources for collective negotiations on a State-wide basis and further coordinates the activities of campus management to be consistent with the university's and the State's employee relations programs and policies;
• advises the campus Presidents in employee relations matters;
• assumes primary responsibility for handling departmental steps in the grievance procedure established for grievances arising out of the interpretation, application or claimed violation of a term or provisions of a written agreement or any other grievance;
• directs staff involved in training of supervisors to assure competent disposition of grievances at the lowest possible level;
• assume primary responsibility for counseling and assisting university management in preparing charges and specifications under negotiated disciplinary procedures;
• advises management of its rights and limitations in disciplining employees and, where necessary, recommends courses of action, modifying disciplinary decisions that are not supportable under the negotiated procedures;
• supervises staff concerned with the review of university operations for the purpose of adjusting practices s/he deems are unfair labor practices;
• conversely, acts to have employee organizations change activities he judges to be abuses of privileges or organization rights granted in written agreements or under law;
• oversees the university's training programs and activities in the area of management development related to labor relations generally and those representing joint labor-management endeavors;
• in cooperation with principal subordinates, sets and adjusts priorities, determines where staff assistance must be brought to bear to handle unusual or extra sensitive work assignments, and reviews work output;
• reviews budget requests from subordinate units and recommends budget action to be taken;
• reviews activity of the university's Office of University-wide Human Resources to keep personnel policies and programs generally in line with negotiated agreements and in keeping with effective labor-management practices;
• generally insures proper coordination of staff under his/her jurisdiction so that administration of total office program will be efficient and effective;
• continually assesses effectiveness of the university's employee relations program and institutes improvements where warranted.

Preferred Qualifications:

A doctorate in law and several years of high level and most significant experience in the employee relations field.

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