The Communiqué – January 8, 2019
January 8, 2019
In this issue:
January General Membership Meeting
We hope to see you at our General Membership Meeting this Wednesday, January 9 from 2:00-4:00pm in 2017 Dunton Tower. The Pension Fund Management director, Betsy Springer, will present on the Carleton University Retirement Plan. Betsy will talk about the basic design of the plan, the governance structure, and the financial position. She will also be taking questions that members may have on the plan.
Member Engagement Survey
We are extending the deadline for the Member Engagement Survey! This survey is to learn more about your needs and preferences across the university. It should take you 5-8 minutes to complete. Please click here to access the survey. Please fill it out no later than January 31. Thank you for your help in this!
Ottawa Senators CUASA Social Night
Join us for a night of fun on Saturday, February 2 to watch the Ottawa Senators play the Detroit Red Wings at the Canadian Tire Centre. Tickets are just $25. This is a great deal for a night out with family, friends, and colleagues!
Don’t want to drive? CUASA is arranging for a free bus to take members to the game! The bus will leave Carleton at 5:30pm and make a stop at Carling and Kirkwood.
If you are interested in attending this event please contact Member Services and Communications Officer Josh Horton here and let him know:
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- how many tickets you would like;
- if you and your other ticket holders will be getting on the CUASA bus to the game;
- how you will be paying for your ticket. Payment by cash or cheque is due by January 11, 2019. You can pay in person at the CUASA office, or by inter-office mail. Members that have not paid by this date will forfeit their tickets.
Please respond ASAP is you would like to attend. Limited tickets and bus seats are available!
Instructor Workload Calculation
In case you missed it, CUASA is pleased to report that Arbitrator Kaplan has decided in favour of the Association on the retroactivity of Instructors’ workload calculations. With this decision, all Instructor workload calculations are now retroactive to May 1, 2017.
Please find the written decision here. All instructors will need to discuss with their Chairs/Directors how their workloads will be adjusted to account for this, or overloads will be paid.
At the time the collective agreement expired, and in accordance with Article 32 (previously Article 33) – Duration and Continuance of the Agreement, the collective agreement continued in force during the period of negotiations. As it relates to Instructor workload, the Article 13.4(b)(i) calculation of the 2014-2017 collective agreement remained in effect during the negotiations. However, for the academic year 2017-2018, the course credit assignments were tethered to the assignment of the previous academic year 2016-2017 due to the averaging system and were calculated using a different set of course credit values.
After a year of collective bargaining, the parties agreed to mediation, which was held on May 26 and 27, 2018. Amongst many of the outstanding articles discussed and agreed to were Articles 13.4. The parties agreed to language that clarified what course credit values may be used for the purposes of calculating the Instructor workload. There were no changes made to the overall calculation or the twenty-four-month averaging system.
The twenty-four-month averaging system was neither disrupted by the expiration of the 2014-2017 collective agreement or the ratification of the new collective agreement as the general provisions fell under Article 32 and remains as identical language.
The twenty-four months averaging system is best described as rolling, meaning that for any two years the average of the assigned teaching credits would be compliant with the specified teaching course credit load.
However, the Employer’s assertion about the lack of retroactivity of the new Article 13.4(b)(i) effectively tried to alter this scheme. This constituted as a substantial change to the operation of the article and was not agreed to by the Union. Furthermore, the agreed upon course credit values were not properly applied to the calculation thereby creating a 0.5 course credit overload situation for all instructors.
In the provisions of Article 13.4(b)(i), there are two possibilities for assigning teaching loads for Instructors. Instructors either teach a fixed 3.5 teaching course credit load or they teach 1.5 times the normal faculty teaching load within their respective sub-units and faculties, whichever is less. As an example, in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), the normal teaching load for professors is a 2.0 course credits during one academic year. An Instructor therefore is assigned 3.0 teaching credits (1.5 multiplied by 2.0) since the value of 3.0 is less than the fixed value of 3.5. For Instructors in the Faculty of Engineering and Design (FED) or the Faculty of Science (FS) where the normal faculty teaching load is 1.5, their respective calculation reflects a 2.25 course credit assignment.
However, the overall workload calculation for an Instructor does not end here. The Employer may assign an additional 0.5 course credits in excess of the calculated value so long as the average of the workload over twenty-four consecutive months does not exceed the calculated value. A rolling average occurs since the workload is based on twenty-four consecutive months and not specific periods of time. The twenty-four months that are considered are the current academic teaching load and the upcoming academic year. At the time of ratification, the academic year of 2017-2018 was still ongoing as the academic year did not end until August 31, 2018.
There are three scenarios that Instructors may now experience in their workloads as a result of the new Article 13.4(b)(i) language. There is no faculty that has a normal teaching load of more than 2.0, therefore the value of 3.0 is used for the calculations below.
a) Rotation A: 3.0 course credits year 1 / 3.0 course credits year 2
The overall average over any of the twenty-four months is therefore 3.0 course credits.
b) Rotation B: 3.5 course credits year 1 / 2.5 course credits year 2
The overall average over the twenty-four-month period is 3.0 course credits. Since one year has an excess 0.5 course credits assigned, the following year must be lowered to meet the averaging requirement.
c) Rotation C: 2.5 course credits year 1 / 3.5 course credits year 2
The overall average over any of the twenty-four-month period is 3.0 course credits. This is the alternate rotation to scenario (b) above.
The above patterns were similarly experienced by Instructors when the fixed value of 3.5 was being used during the term of the 2014-2017 collective agreement. The course credit assignment patterns prior to this new collective agreement were:
a) 3.5 course credits year 1 / 3.5 course credits year 2; or
b) 4.0 course credits year 1 / 3.0 course credits year 2; or
c) 3.0 course credits year 1 / 4.0 course credits year 2.
Should Instructors encounter any further problems from Carleton University on the adjustment of the workloads, please contact CUASA’s Senior Grievance and Arbitration Officer, Christal Côté, at [email protected].
Signing of the Collective Agreement
Now that we have Arbitrator Kaplan’s decision on the retroactivity of the instructor workload calculations, we will be moving forward with scheduling the official signing of the 2017-2021 collective agreement. Once the agreement has been signed, it will be made available on the CUASA website.
CUASA Website Redesign
We are currently in the process of a redesign of the CUASA website. We look forward to sharing a brand new look with you in the coming weeks. Have any suggestions for the new website? Please share them with Member Services and Communications Officer Josh Horton here.
Coming Events
- General Membership Meeting – Wednesday, January 9, 2:00-4:00pm – 2017 DT
- CUASA Council Meeting – Wednesday, January 23, 1:00-3:00pm – 4351 HP
- Ottawa Senators CUASA Social Night – Saturday, February 2, 7:00pm – details above
- Annual General Meeting – April 2019 – full details to follow
- Tenure & Promotion workshops – full details to follow
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CUASA Communiqué, December 2018 The Communiqué is published by the Carleton University Academic Staff Association (CUASA), 2003 Dunton Tower, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Canada, K1S 5B6. Past issues are archived on the CUASA Web site at CUASA.ca. The Communiqué publishes CUASA-related news and information for our Members and provides Members with a forum to express their CUASA-related ideas and opinions. We want to hear from you! Please send your CUASA-related story ideas, news items, opinion pieces, letters, photographs, and other submissions to the CUASA Office at [email protected]. You can find CUASA’s Accessible Customer Service Policy here. |
