The CMCFA has been made aware that the RMC Principal recently sent letters encouraging some UTs to take “as much vacation leave as your teaching schedule permits” which interestingly enough does not show concern for other aspects of a UT’s activity such as service or research. Some members have expressed concerns about the dichotomy in messaging warning UTs to respect the vacation leave provisions of the collective agreement (CA) while having to do additional work to pivot to online teaching for the Winter semester on short notice.

The UT vacation leave provisions are found at article 17 of the CA which is available at: https://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/agreements-conventions/view-visualiser-eng.aspx?id=27#toc21134221140. In summary, the CA mentions:

• how many hours of vacation leave credits are earned each month by UTs depending on their years of service (article 17.02),
• that vacation leave is to be taken at a time specified by the employer and that UTs are expected to take all their vacation leave in the year in which it was earned (article 17.05a), and
• that UTs must use their yearly leave entitlement plus up to 37.5 hours if they have more than 300 hours of unused vacation leave credits (article 17.05b ii).

The letter directs UTs to reach out to their Dean by 15 January 2022 if they believe they will not be able to meet the expectations of the CA so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Our advice to UTs would be to reach out to their Dean as directed and to engage the CMCFA if they have concerns with the arrangements that are then proposed.

As you will remember, the CMCFA signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the employer during the last Fiscal Year which you can find at this link ; this MOA has not been renewed. When the subject of vacation leave came up at national level meetings that our CMCFA President attends on our behalf last year, the employer stated that no one would be forced on leave and we received assurances from the Principal that he would not implement a leave management process forcing UTs to take leave during pandemic conditions.

We will be monitoring the situation closely. Those with questions or concerns should contact the CMCFA Vice-President, Sylvain Leblanc, at leblanc@cmcfa-apcmc.ca.