This message outlines potential violations of the UT Collective Agreement resulting from the changes to the teaching plan that were announced during the RMC Principal’s Town Hall for faculty on Monday, 3 June 2024. At the Town Hall, the Principal and Vice-Principal announced many changes to our previously approved teaching plans for the upcoming 2024-2025 academic year. These changes included:

• Cutting 135 courses;
• Cutting and combining sections of multi-section courses, which increases the enrolment and teaching workload in the remaining sections; and
• Combining English and French sections, despite acknowledging this will negatively impact francophones.

In addition, the Principal and Vice-Principal announced they will not be filling the 14 indeterminate UT positions or the 18 administrative positions that will be vacant in 2024-2025.

These measures will likely increase UT workload even further and may violate the protections under the UT Collective Agreement. Accordingly, we have outlined these potential violations below and provided a recommended course of action for recourse for any impacted members.

1. Cutting and combining multi-section courses

• Article 13.01 states, “The teaching workload of a UT shall be consistent with the normal average teaching workload of UTs in their academic department or equivalent unit. Teaching duties materially in excess of the appropriate teaching workload shall be considered overload.”
• Article 13.05 states that UTs who are assigned overload teaching duties shall have their teaching workload reduced by an equivalent amount within the following two years.
• Article 13.07(c) and (d) identify “the number of hours of preparation, grading, and administration per course” and “the number of students enrolled, on average, per course” as two “factors to be used in determining appropriate teaching workload.”

Therefore, the CMCFA’s position is that insofar as cutting and combining multi-section courses results in an overload for UTs, those UTs are entitled to a reduction in teaching workload in the following two years.

Recourse: If you are in this situation, you can email your Head or Dean (if you are a Head) to inform them that this new teaching plan places you in an overload situation and ask them to confirm that you will be granted a reduction in teaching in the following two years. Please copy the CMCFA President (luu@cmcfa-apcmc.ca) on the email.

2. Course assignments outside of your area

• Article 13.02 states, “Assignments of teaching to a particular UT shall be consistent with their qualifications.”

Recourse: If you have been assigned teaching that is inconsistent with your qualifications, you can email your Head or Dean (if you are a Head) to inform them that the teaching assignment is inconsistent with your qualifications and in violation of Article 13.02 of the UT Collective Agreement. Please copy the CMCFA President (luu@cmcfa-apcmc.ca) on the email.

3. Consultation on your teaching assignment

• Article 13.03 states, “A UT shall be consulted concerning such assignment prior to its making.”

Recourse: If you were not consulted on your teaching assignment prior to its making, you can email your Head or Dean (if you are a Head) to inform them that you were not consulted on the new teaching assignment and that this is a violation of Article 13.03 of the UT Collective Agreement. Please copy the CMCFA President (luu@cmcfa-apcmc.ca) on the email.

4. Assignment of new courses

• Article 13.07(i) identifies “additional hours of preparation required for a new course or revision of an existing course” as a factor to be used in determining appropriate teaching workload.

The CMCFA’s position is that the assignment of a course that a UT has never taught before or a course that a UT has not taught in a long time, requiring significant additional hours of revision, should be considered overload under Article 13.05, as such courses would result in “teaching duties materially in excess of the appropriate teaching workload.” As above, under Article 13.05, UTs who are assigned overload teaching duties shall have their teaching workload reduced by an equivalent amount within the following two years.

Recourse: If you were assigned a new course or a course that requires significant additional hours to revise, you can email your Head or Dean (if you are a Head) to inform them that the assignment of these courses places you in a teaching overload situation and ask them to confirm that you will be granted a reduction in teaching in the following two years. Please copy the CMCFA President (luu@cmcfa-apcmc.ca) on the email.

5. Teaching a course in both official languages

• Article 13.07(j) identifies “the teaching of courses in both official languages” as a factor to be used in determining appropriate teaching workload.
• The Vice-Principal Academic’s “Briefing Note to Department Heads and Programme Chairs about the Staffing Plan,” dated 23 Feb 2024, states in para. 2: “In terms of teaching load, when a faculty member is teaching the French and English versions of a similarly-numbered course with 3 or more students in each course, these 2 courses are considered 2 teaching credits.”

Recourse: If you were assigned to teach a course in both official languages and that course has an enrolment of three or more students in English as well as three or more students in French, you can e-mail your Head or Dean (if you are a Head) to inform them that this teaching assignment places you in a teaching overload situation and ask them to confirm that you will be granted a reduction in teaching in the following two years. Please copy the CMCFA President (luu@cmcfa-apcmc.ca) on the email.

6. Increased workload due to administrative duties

• Article 13.08(a) provides for the reduction of teaching workload of a UT due to “the number of hours devoted to administrative duties.”

Recourse: If you anticipate that your administrative workload will increase materially as a result of Management’s decision not to fill the vacant UT and administrative positions, you can email the Head or Dean (if you are the Head), as appropriate, requesting (i) course relief under Article 13.08(a) for the additional duties you anticipate falling to you and (ii) the names of the people to whom the additional duties will fall, if not to you. Please copy the CMCFA President (luu@cmcfa-apcmc.ca) on the email.

7. Teaching Assistants

• The Vice-Principal Academic’s “Briefing Note to Department Heads and Programme Chairs about the Staffing Plan” dated 23 Feb 2024, captures the past practice in assigning teaching. Para. 8 states: “A Teaching Assistant (TA) can be requested for a course or lab when the minimum number of registered students in the course is equal or greater than 25.”

Recourse: If you have been assigned a course with an enrolment of 25 students or more and would like a teaching assistant, you can email your Head or Dean (if you are a Head) to request one. If you are denied a Teaching Assistant, you can email your Head or Dean (if you are a Head) to inform them that this denial places you in a teaching overload situation and ask them to confirm that you will be granted a reduction in teaching in the following two years. Please copy the CMCFA President (luu@cmcfa-apcmc.ca) on the email.

8. Sick Leave

• Article 19.02 states: “A UT shall be granted sick leave with pay when the UT is unable to perform their duties because of illness or injury,” provided that the UT has enough sick leave credits.
• Article 19.03 states: “Unless a medical certificate is required by the Employer, a statement signed by the UT stating that because of illness or injury the UT was unable to perform their duties shall, when delivered to the Employer, be considered as meeting the requirements of paragraph 19.02(a)”—i.e. the requirement that “the UT satisfies the Employer of this condition.”

Recourse: If you need to take sick leave or require a medical accommodation, do not hesitate to request it and advise your Head or Dean (if you are a Head) accordingly. Please reach out if you need help with either of these requests. Our health should come before the bottom line.

Conclusion

We are still in the process of gathering information on the potential impact of the proposed staffing measures and will continue to update you as necessary.

However, in the meantime, please email the CMCFA President (luu@cmcfa-apcmc.ca) if there are other issues arising from the budget cuts not addressed in the above.

In solidarity,

Helen