Dear colleagues,
We hope you are starting to get yourselves established in new routines.
Although we have been in confinement for more than a month now, things are still moving fast in terms of information and decision-making. Sometimes, information we receive is contradicted within a few hours. The Executive receives a constant flow of news from many sources which we analyze, verify and validate before sharing it with you in order to avoid overloading you with communications or disseminating conflicting information. Last week was particularly busy in this sense, with two consecutive governmental decrees directly affecting cégep teachers (and students).
Rest assured that we do everything we can to keep you informed of your rights, and to give you the best advice possible. Even if we do not respond right away when news breaks, we are constantly consulting with our advisors, talking with involved parties, and researching all the possible options. We favour targeted communications with people concerned rather than general messages. But we remain present and active on all dossiers throughout the crisis.
The work we do behind the scenes is not glamorous, but we are committed to it. For us, this has not changed in confinement from “normal” union exec work. 🙂
VCTA Elections and General Assemblies
Because of the physical distancing policies that are in place, we cannot hold union meetings. Therefore, the VCTA Executive has passed a motion postponing General Assemblies until confinement regulations are lifted, and we are allowed to assemble again.
In summary: The VCTA Executive has decided to postpone the general assembly meeting at which time decisions about VCTA elections and the budget for 20-21 are to take place. The VCTA Executive has also decided to hold the aforementioned general assembly meeting as soon as the health emergency is lifted and the union is no longer subject to a ban on assembly.
Attached, you will find the full motion with all considerations.
IPESA Revision Documents
The revised IPESA consultation deadline has been set to Sept 4th.
We realize that you are likely to be quite busy now, but we wanted you to have the opportunity to plan for the September 4th deadline, so we decided to send you some documents right away.
We have highlighted parts of the draft which we thought were possible areas of concern to teachers, and we shared this at our last GA, on March 11th. (Attached.) In particular, you should pay attention to parts where we are asked to adhere to the policy. The Collective Agreement says we need to take it into consideration in our work (4-1.05 & 4-1.10).
There was a discussion at the GA, and people wanted to be able to see how other departments were responding. There was also some concern that Faculty members of the working group may not have access to departments’s contributions. So a recommendation was made that departments share their feedback with the VCTA. We sent a message to all department coordinators. We will disseminate the documents to all of you as they arrive. So far, Commerce & Humanities have responded. Their feedback documents are attached.
Continuity plan – Clarification
It was made clear at Academic Council and at JOINTS that the 2019-2020 academic calendar has not changed. The Academic Continuity Under COVID-19 document distributed by our Academic Dean states: “No changes to the Academic Calendar are planned.”
The recommendation to complete courses before May 1st was given with regard to the possibility of us returning on May 4th, and having to do the labs or stages that were missed. The suggestion was to try and cover the theory components by May 1st.
But the Academic Continuity Under COVID-19 document also says:
“Given the most recent news from Public Health, it is now very unlikely, yet not official, that the College will not reopen. The directive will then be to complete as many of the Winter 2020 courses before the regular end of the Academic Calendar, INCLUDING the exam period.”
Therefore, the theory portion of our courses can go up to May 14th (May 12th is a Friday schedule). The final exam period can still be used for evaluations – May 15th to 26th. Final grades remain due June 2nd.
We are asked to keep to our course schedule to avoid conflicts for students.
Decrease in salary as of April 1st 2020
You may have noticed a slight decrease in your pay check. This is because the increase seen as of April 1st, 2019 ($292.21 per FTE spread over the year) was a special additional remuneration and not a permanent raise. (Article 6-4.07 of the Collective Agreement)
Should new salary scales be determined in the future, these would be retroactive to April 1st, 2020.
Info Insurance #25
You will find attached the latest Info Insurance newsletter in English and in French. It contains information about the following:
– Travelling during a pandemic. The information is taken from La Capitale’s website.
– Medical e-consults is not covered by our group insurance policy but Bonjour-santé is offering the service free of charge during the COVID-19 pandemic.
– The Ordre des pharmaciens du Québec is now recommending that its members suspend the practice of issuing recurrent prescriptions 3 months at a time for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent stock shortages.
– Plus information on car insurance and RREGOP buybacks.
Reminders
All non-tenured teachers should complete their GOS before the end of April.
As always, stay safe.