From left to right: Roberts and Rohkea

“We were so sure this was the right thing to do but we were terrified at the same time,” says Karen Roberts, art history professor at Long Beach City College (LBCC) and Community College Association member. “It felt like we were sticking our necks out – we’re just a couple at-will employees.”

Nearly three years after filing a lawsuit against LBCC, Roberts and fellow part-time art professor Seija Rohkea won a historic ruling in February that will have an impact on the members of Certificated Hourly Instructors CTA/NEA (CHI) and potentially more than 40,000 adjunct faculty in community colleges statewide.

In 2022, Roberts and Rohkea filed suit over the college’s failure to compensate them and hundreds of other adjunct community college faculty at the minimum wage, as required by law. Their lawsuit outlined many additional duties their teaching assignments required beyond the classroom time for which they were actually paid – colleges only pay adjunct faculty for the time they are teaching in the classroom.

“When I was president of CHI for about eight years, I kept finding creative ways to tell the Board of Trustees they weren’t paying us for anything we were doing outside the classroom and we were working for free,” Roberts says. “I got tired of hearing ridiculous things like ‘you can do your syllabus during class.’”

LBCC and other community colleges require part-time instructors to work many hours performing teaching-related work outside of the classroom, including time spent planning lectures, grading and performing other instructional activities that are necessary to teach a course. Colleges also evaluate the work performance of these instructors based on their teaching-related work outside of the classroom despite not paying them for those hours worked. The court ruling found that these faculty members are not exempt from minimum wage laws, and they should be paid at least the minimum wage for each of those uncompensated hours.

“The judge affirmed that we are being exploited,” says Rohkea, who now works full-time at Fullerton College in a classified role in addition to teaching at LBCC. “It’s so validating that someone in the legal system agrees with our case.”

Community College Association (CCA) President Eric Kaljumägi attended some of the hearings along with CCA Vice President Randa Wahbe. Kaljumägi says this ruling is a step in the right direction for equity for part-time faculty.

“While this lawsuit only modestly dents the dramatic pay inequity in the college system, I am glad to see that Roberts and Rohkea have prevailed,” Kaljumägi says. “The Long Beach decision makes clear that to be exempt from minimum wage laws as a professional, you must earn a professional wage – one that is specified in regulation as at least double what a full-time worker at minimum wage would make. At present, Long Beach part-time faculty do not meet this salary threshold (a little under $69,000) even if they were legally permitted to teach full-time loads both academic semesters.”

Winning Respect and Fighting Exploitation

With the college ruled to be at fault, attention turns to the next phase of the trial (a trial setting status conference is scheduled in early April) where the remedy will be determined. CTA legal staff said they are requesting compensatory damages for the impacted members, who could see back pay and benefits for the unpaid hours of work for the past three years – potentially, tens of thousands of dollars for previously unpaid work. But with the decision setting a legal precedent that may benefit part-time faculty across the state, Roberts and Rohkea both say this is about more than money.

“I’m hoping that when CHI goes into bargaining, maybe it’s not business as usual and we’re treated with more respect,” Roberts says.

“At times when I was scared, (our CTA staff attorney) kept saying ‘how would it feel if you could help set a legal precedent?’ Those words were so encouraging,” Rohkea adds. “I don’t know what we’re going to get financially. Will we get something? Yes, but that’s not why we did this.”

Over the years, California community college districts have increasingly turned to part-time, or adjunct, faculty to teach students and support learning – adjunct faculty teach up to three-quarters of community college classes in some districts. These part-time faculty are required to hold the same minimum qualifications as their full-time counterparts but are deemed temporary and have little job security.

Part-timers are only allowed to work two-thirds the load of a full-time professor, meaning that many string together adjunct jobs at multiple colleges, earning the moniker “freeway flyers” for the amount of uncompensated time they spend commuting between their jobs. To compound matters, community colleges pay adjunct faculty less than full-time faculty, and fail to pay them for the many hours of essential work they do outside of the classroom on behalf of their employers – as in this case and others currently waiting for their day in court.

“One of the greatest inequities in education today is that of part-time college professor pay,” Kaljumägi says. “At Long Beach, part-time faculty are expected to exercise their independent judgment to complete the same preparation, evaluation, paperwork and communication tasks that full-time professors do, while earning a salary that is on a per-class basis at most 63% of what a full-time professor earns on column 1, step 1 on the salary schedule.”

The combined low pay, lack of respect and unreasonable expectations (like working for free) have made working as part-time faculty unsustainable, according to Rohkea, who says the sacrifices and disrespect made her feel like she was “renting her career.”

“I would like to see the California Education Code changed, so we are not kept to 67% of a full-time professor’s load. I would like to see a livable wage for adjuncts who are doing this as their full-time careers,” Rohkea says. “When I have students who want to go into teaching, it’s hard to stand behind being a college professor when I know only one in 10 of them will find a full-time job teaching. How do you advocate for your student to go into this?”

Rohkea says the disparity between full-time and adjunct professors became even more evident during the COVID-19 distance learning years, calling it exploitation – with massive amounts of unpaid work required of part-time faculty, including meetings, certifications and trainings, in addition to their course-related responsibilities.
“All these trainings and things we have to do, we never get paid for any of it,” says Rohkea. “That needs to change and I’m hoping that’s what comes of this win.”

This victory is just the beginning. Our union continues to organize to change part-time faculty compensation laws to win parity for part-time community college faculty. Kaljumägi points out that while paying a vastly lower wage to a “perpetual underclass of employees is wrong, it is still legal.” Previous attempts to fix this problem in the Legislature have been unsuccessful but the fight continues. Kaljumägi is hopeful this decision will bring momentum to the movement.

“Part-time faculty across the state will benefit from this ruling and I am glad for it, but our struggle for pay equity is not over,” he says.

‘This is All of Our Victory’

Roberts and Rohkea say the ongoing support from CTA legal staff and fellow members across the state has been integral to their win in court. The professors said the win is a shining example of the Power of Us.

“It’s a collective effort – nobody can be out here by themselves doing this. This is all of our victory!” Roberts says.

“It meant so much to us to know that people were cheering us on. Knowing that there’s a bigger picture was everything,” Rohkea adds. “When we fight, we win. We have to stay united and in solidarity, and keep our eyes on the prize of a livable wage and better quality of life.”

In Their Own Words

“It’s so meaningful to have this case and be able to help future adjuncts. Even the word adjunct is demeaning because it means “temporary.” We’re seen as temporary even though we are 80% of the faculty in some colleges. I would love to see that changed so this work is seen as a career.”

– Seija Rohkea

“As part-timers, we cite (precedent-setting court case) Cervisi all the time to apply for unemployment benefits, so now others might cite Roberts v. Long Beach CCD. That’s kind of amazing. I feel really proud.”

– Karen Roberts

Case Chronology

April 4, 2022: CTA filed a class action wage-and-hour lawsuit against Long Beach City College District (LBCCD) in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of more than 650 LBCCD adjunct faculty. The lawsuit seeks the maximum damages of three years back pay and the unpaid retirement benefits owed for uncompensated work hours, as well as penalties and interest.

Feb. 19, 2025: L.A. County Judge Stuart Rice issues ruling granting declaratory relief to plaintiffs. Judge Rice rules on essential questions of part-time faculty being non-exempt (due to the district not paying sufficient salary to qualify as exempt from minimum wage laws) and the district’s obligation to pay minimum wage for all hours worked by part-time faculty, which he found the district was violating.

With the college ruled to be at fault, attention turns to the next phase of the litigation – a trial to determine the extent of the backpay and benefits damages owed to adjunct faculty who work at LBCCD. A trial scheduling conference is scheduled for April 9, 2025.