Administrative Regulation: Appointment of Faculty and Staff
Administrative Number: 3.2.1
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Employee Categories. The College utilizes benefitted (≥ 20 hours weekly) and non-benefitted (‹20 hours weekly) employees to accomplish its mission. There are four categories of benefitted employees:
- Administrators. These employees are Vice President (VP) and Vice Presidents and the President are further defined as Executive Administrators. All administrators are FLSA Exempt. EWC issues VPs annual Appointment Letters. The Executive Administrators are at-will, annual renewing contract employees.
- Faculty. These employees are EWC issues all Faculty annual contracts. Faculty are tenured and non-tenure-track. All faculty are FSLA Exempt.
- Professional. These employees are Coordinators and Directors (or variations thereof). EWC issues these personnel annual Appointment Professional staff are FLSA Exempt.
- Classified. These employees are mostly Service/Craft Workers, Technicians, and Specialists. These personnel are issued annual Appointment Classified staff are FLSA Non-Exempt.
Application Requirements. Candidates for employment must provide the Office of Human Resources with the appropriate credentials according to the position for which they are applying. Employees with foreign academic credentials who will perform for credit instructional duties must have their credentials evaluated for US equivalency, at their own expense, by an approved credential evaluation service and ensure those results are transmitted to Human Resources. The College may disqualify candidates from employment consideration, or terminate their employment, who knowingly submit incomplete, false, or inaccurate information in their application materials.
Hiring/Retention of Foreign Workers. EWC may hire qualified candidates to fill specialty occupation vacancies that require a bachelor’s degree or higher. Such hired candidates may begin employment if they possess a federal employment authorization document (EAD) obtained through their non-immigrant visa (e.g., F-1 OPT). EWC may sponsor foreign candidates who do not possess an EAD for an H-1B visa. Premium processing will be used if the projected date-of-hire is less than 100 days from the signed Employment Offer.
EWC may sponsor eligible, non-citizen employees for permanent residence or H-1B renewal upon their supervisor’s written recommendation. Such hired foreign workers must possess recent written satisfactory performance assessments of their assigned duties and no documented warnings in their Personnel File.
Per US immigration law, EWC will pay H-1B visa and permanent residency fees as required by federal statute for employees and foreign candidates with a signed Employment Offer and contract (if applicable). Expenses not mandated by federal law to employers are the responsibility of the employee or candidate. Mandatory fees paid by the employer for hiring or retaining a foreign worker cannot be recovered as a penalty or wage deduction upon employment termination, by either party, regardless of the length of time served. Such action violates Title 20 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) sections 655.731(c)(9) and (10) and 656.12.
The recruitment, termination (initiated by employer or employee), and length of employment service of foreign workers will be in accordance with federal immigration laws and Board Policies. Federal statutes and CFR supersede College policies and rules.
Background Checks. EWC conducts pre-employment background checks, at its own expense, of all final- candidate employees to help determine an applicant’s overall employability. These checks are performed during the hiring process to promote a safe and secure environment for EWC, its students and staff. The checks will be initiated for full-time employees after Human Resources (HR) receives signed acceptance of any employment offer and for part-time employees after Supervisors have informed HR of their selected candidates. Employment of all full and part-time employees, to include paid non-Work Study student employees, on-campus Adjunct Instructors, assistant athletics coaches, Community Education instructors, and non-paid volunteers, is contingent upon successful completion of a background check. EWC employment may not begin until the background check is complete and the results have been reviewed by HR.
Background checks will be conducted by a third-party agency. The HR director will determine the scope of the background check but verification may include past employment, professional and personal references, education records, issued SSN, criminal history, driving record, and sex offender registry.
Before conducting a background check, EWC will provide written notice to the applicant that a background check will be performed and the results may be used to base a decision regarding his or her employment. EWC will acquire written authorization, on a separate form, from selected final candidates and inform them background check information will be used solely for employment purposes. Refusal to sign the Disclosure and Authorization Regarding Background Investigation for Employment Purposes Form constitutes a rejection of the employment offer.
Background checks are regulated by state and federal law, to include the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Equal Employment Opportunity legislation. A candidate may be disqualified as a result of the background check. However, results cannot be used as a basis for denying employment unless it is determined to be due to job-related issues or business necessity. Results that are job-related or of a business necessity will be addressed on an individual case-by-case basis led by HR and may include the position’s supervisory chain. HR will notify the candidate when the background check results in a decision where the candidate is no longer being considered for employment.
Access to a candidate’s background report is strictly limited to HR and the candidate themselves. The Background Check report is highly confidential and will be filed separately, and kept in a locked cabinet, separate from the individual’s Personnel Folder. As required by law, Background Check results will be retained for two years and then destroyed.
Orientation & In-Processing. All new employees will participate in an orientation session with the Director of Human Resources where all EWC Personnel Policies will be reviewed. New instructional faculty will also participate in a new faculty orientation with the Chief Academic Officer. Employment forms must be filed with the Human Resource Office before the employee can be entered on the regular payroll.
Personnel below the level of Executive Administrator shall serve a probationary period according to Administrative Regulation 3.2.4.
Original Adoption Date: 1/25/00
Revision Date(s): 11/8/05(RF), 8/13/13(RF), 1/4/16, 4/4/16, 7/25/16, 7/21/17, 11/17/17, 5/10/18, 12/10/19
Date reviewed, no change: