Massachusetts: Adjuncts file health care lawsuit

by E Wayne Ross on November 24, 2009

Boston Globe: Professors file health care lawsuit
Adjunct instructors challenge denial of insurance coverage

A group of part-time community college instructors filed a lawsuit yesterday against the state, saying that hundreds of adjunct faculty in Massachusetts’ public higher education system are unfairly denied health care coverage.

The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court on behalf of five instructors, follows nearly a decade of unsuccessful wrangling with state legislators to get an adjunct health insurance bill enacted into law. It also comes as schools, particularly community colleges, are increasingly turning to adjuncts amid burgeoning enrollment.