Workload Monitoring
The college is currently reviewing evaluations factors and meeting with faculty one-on-one to review their upcoming SWFs. The union is concerned that management is taking this opportunity to undervalue or change evaluations in such a way that it reduces hours and forces more work on faculty. It is important to note that Page 14 of our Collective Agreement (Article 11.01e2 iv) states that where there is more than one type of evaluation, the teacher and supervisor shall agree on the proportionate attribution of hours. This is a mutual agreement where the faculty can outline the time spent on marking and explain the extra time needed for marking projects online. If your review still results in added coursework at this time, faculty are strongly advised to refer their SWF to the workload monitoring group (WMG) by signing that option on page two of your SWF. In doing so, you should be prepared to support your argument for more evaluation time. If no one complains, the college will just continue to add more work on us all. We are also arguing that this review of evaluation factors is work that should be completed in the spring non-teaching period and is an unnecessary burden during this time of crisis.
Unlike management, we believe working online requires more time as faculty learn to use new technologies, spend hours converting courses for remote delivery and deal with increasing student support and communications. We’d all like to think we will back in our classrooms next September, but we cannot be certain of that so we must continue to push back against unreasonable demands on our time.
Faculty have also been asking us if the college is attempting to increase teaching in the spring. For some, the college has been slowly increased spring teaching, so it is important that you monitor your contact time to ensure it doesn’t exceed the maximum stated in our collective agreement. Page 16 (Article 11.01k1 and article 11.01k3) outlines the maximum contact hours as follows:
- 180 contact days per academic year for post-secondary, 648 contact hours per academic year
- 190 contact days for non-post-secondary programs, 760 teaching contact hours
As mentioned above, if you do not agree with your SWF, do not sign it and instead mark on page 2 that you wish it be sent to WMG for review. The WMG is comprised of both management and union representatives who will examine your SWF for compliance with the contract. It’s important to remember that you only have five days to sign or send your SWF to WMG once it is released to you.
If you have questions for the union about your SWF, please reach out to us at local354info@gmail.com.