This may be a tough sell

UC and the Academic Senate are officially opposing a state constitutional amendment that would put UC employees under the same labor standards as other employees. In a letter to Liz Ortega, Chair, California Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment, UC Academic Council Chair James Steintrager argues that:

...Under ACA 14, UC faculty and student trainees would lose the necessary flexibility to efficiently and appropriately allocate our work time. This, in turn, will have a negative impact on the University’s research productivity and teaching excellence. The proposed legislation, impairing how faculty organize their own time and labor, would strike at the heart of UC’s missions and at the entire faculty’s academic freedom insofar as it will impede our ability to deliver our best work in service to the state...

Full letter at https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/reports/aca14-oppose-20240305.pdf.

The proposed amendment states:

...Employees of the Regents of the University of California shall have the right to, and shall be covered by, the following basic state labor standards as they apply to employees of the state on or after January 1, 2025:

(A) Equal pay standards, including those established pursuant to the California Equal Pay Act and California Fair Pay Act of 2015.

(B) The payment of a minimum wage.

(C) The timely payment of wages.

(D) The payment of overtime and standards governing the hours of work.

(E) Occupational safety and health standards.

(F) Meal and rest breaks.

(G) Paid leave, including paid sick leave.

(H) Standards against displacement and contracting out of work as provided for in state laws governing the nonemergency use of personal service contracts by the state...

Full text of proposed ACA 14 at https://legiscan.com/CA/text/ACA14/id/2840897.

Exactly how faculty in particular would be affected by ACA 14 is not clear from Chair Steintrager's letter. The concept that UC employees should be exempt from general labor standards may be a tough sell in the legislature.