Statement on behalf of Part-Time City of Berkeley, Public Library Workers

We are the library’s part-time workers who are actively seeking to be made whole by recovering back pay for health insurance benefits.

We are the library’s part-time workers who are negatively affected by the cap enforced in response to workers seeking back pay.

We are the library’s full-time workers who support part-time workers and have also been affected by the city and library administration’s recent decisions.

This statement is in response to the City’s failure to pay part-time workers the full benefits due to them for working extra hours and their decision to implement a cap on extra hours preventing them from working more than 29 hours, decisions that have been enforced by Library Administration.

The consequences of the City’s actions and Library Administration’s enforcement have profoundly negative consequences for library part-time workers and for our library system.

Many of the library part-time workers are a part of marginalized communities. The extra hours were a way to piece together a paycheck that would allow workers to live and thrive in the communities near the library, where the cost of living continues to increase.

These extra hours were also a way to gain experience and skills that workers use to benefit library patrons as well as improve the opportunities for professional growth. This drastic reduction in hours is incongruent with the library’s efforts in providing staff with pathways to professional development.

The library has often charged staff committees with finding ways to hire and retain staff from minoritized communities. The hours cap and denial of back pay undermines this key objective; adequate work opportunities and equal compensation for equal work are vital to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce.

If part-timers go, they take with them a diverse workforce with years of experience in a profession that is historically made up of 80-90 percent white women.

How and when this cap was enacted was done poorly and unfairly. The sudden imposition of an hours cap effectively functions as a pay cut for workers and their families who relied on this income. Workers will now have to seek out other positions outside the library system when previously they may have sought a permanent full-time position in the library.

Departments and branches are unable to fully staff their desks without the help of library part-time colleagues because these desks need more than nine extra hours per week.

The When2Work shift trade board is a testament to the demand for extra coverage across locations.

As the library is currently mapping a new strategic plan, we insist that the library analyze its practices, not only when serving the public, but in valuing its staff.

Library Admin has stated that staff are the most important resource for our community, but the decision to enforce a cap on part-time worker’s hours diminishes our ability to serve.

We hope Library Admin joins us in supporting part-time workers and that BPL becomes a place that fosters professional development and career growth in support of a diverse staff.

In the spirit of justice and equity, we are hopeful that the library will do the right thing and make its part-time workers whole. This begins with providing them the back pay that they are asking for and deserve and lifting the hour cap.

Signed,

Berkeley Public Library Part & Full Time Workers with Members of the Racial Justice
Advisory