Thank You
Some things have settled in the last few weeks. We have heard from the College on a few dossiers, and it looks like actions are finally taking place to support teachers and the rest of the community. Much more remains to be accomplished, of course. You can be sure that we continue to do everything we can to maintain the momentum.
We would like to thank everyone who has raised concerns in various contexts, be it at VCTA meetings, in College committees, or to us directly by email or at the office. The Executive can press the College to make changes if we are made aware of situations, and together we can make Vanier a better place to work. Your contributions and your involvement are important and greatly appreciated.
Solidarity!
Signature of Collective Agreement
The text of the Collective Agreement has been ready to be signed by both sides since Friday, February 11. Unfortunately, in order to close the negotiations, our Regroupement Cegep team agreed to desist all grievances concerning remuneration for the Recognition of Acquired Competencies, with a list to be agreed upon between the two sides. However, the Comité patronal de négociation des collèges (CPNC) REFUSES TO SIGN until there is an agreement on the grievances to be dropped. Some 35 grievances are still in litigation, which concern about 5 colleges (not Vanier). We will take some actions to unlock the process. Our position is that the list can be finalized after the signature, as the criteria for the selection of grievances to be withdrawn have been agreed upon. The retroactive pay and bonuses that we expect will only be delivered after the signature. So we need to urge the CPNC to sign.
Continuing Education Leaves
If you are denied paid leaves for bereavement or other family matters, contact the union. Article 5-9 of Collective Agreement.
RRSPs & Fondaction
A Fondaction representative, Axel Bousquet, will be in the union office C101, on Feb 23rd from 9:00-4:00. Fondaction is a Quebec based workers’ RRSP fund for which the government gives extra credit on tax returns. It is possible to do payroll deductions for this. (see attached form). Come see Axel if you have any questions.
The Disappearance of Mugs
It appears that most of the coffee mugs we make available in the union office cupboard acquire paraphysical properties: they disappear without immediate cause! Joke aside, we try to replenish the cupboards regularly, but we have heard there are still a few of our cups in the wild… Please return borrowed mugs to the office after you are done with them. Cleaning them prior would be appreciated as well. 😉
As a side note, if you have extra mugs in your own cupboard that you would be willing to share with your colleagues, we are always happy to add to our fleet.
Allocation Meeting for Coordinators
The VCTA is organizing a Coordinators’ meeting 10-12am on March 16th via ZOOM.
Coordinators should have received the invitation by now. Anyone else interested in attending should contact the VCTA and ask for the link. Tentative agenda includes: workload distribution and allocation projet, VWRP, subs & replacements, postes & tenure.
VCTA COVID – 19 Survey Results
On January 17th, the VCTA sent out a survey to collect information from teachers about: the challenges that they faced while teaching during confinement; concerns about returning to campus to deliver in person classes; and the challenges that they currently face on campus.
The results of this survey have been compiled and are presented at the end of this News Bulletin for your perusal. Given that the pool of respondents was very small, the data which is presented in the mini report cannot be used to draw any statistical conclusions; but the results may interest you nonetheless.
The VCTA would like to thank all of those who took the time to fill out the survey and to the members of the Association Council Covid-19 sub-committee for creating the survey.
“Prise de Parole”
As part of the activities surrounding International Women’s Day, the Conseil central du Montréal métropolitain–CSN (CCMM–CSN) invites you on March 2 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. to a virtual training session, for women, on speaking up in public. (It will be held in French only) Register on the CCMM-CSN website at the following address:
https://www.ccmm-csn.qc.ca/evenement/prise-de-parole/
How Some Things Work: New to the VCTA News Bulletin.
On occasion we will be adding a “How Some Things Work” column as an attachment to the News Bulletin. Today’s is on sick days and sick leaves. Hope you find it useful.
Upcoming Events
Association Council – March 3rd at UB via ZOOM
General Assembly – March 16th at UB via ZOOM.
How Some Things Work:
Sick days for DAY TEACHERS [15-20 Collective Agreement articles]
Seven Sick days are given to teachers every year, in Sept. [5-5.28] They are not cumulative year to year (except, unused sick days in year 1 of employment are added to year two). Some of us have a cumulative sick bank from earlier Collective Agreements, these only kick in with extended leaves. Special leaves also exist for weddings, funerals, etc. [5-9.01] We are also entitled up to 10 family days (could be ½ days) which are not paid, but the first 6 of those days can be paid from our regular 7 sick days. [5-9]
Teachers with more than 33% of a workload also have salary insurance.
Short Term Disability (STD) kicks in after 5 days of sick days. [5-5.17]
This insurance is with the college directly. We need forms filled out by our doctor (available on-line, see HR website). One form applies to leaves of less than 30 days, and another form is used for longer leaves. For the first year, while on STD, we are paid 85% of our expected salary, and pension contributions are exonerated. The pay is prorated for part-time teachers. The second year is paid at 66.67%, again with pension exoneration. If we are on STD leave for more than 3 months, vacation pay is also affected the following summer.
Long Term Disability (LTD) kicks in after 2 years of STD. Payment is based on your salary at the start of the LTD. This insurance is with Beneva (previously LaCapitale). See your Beneva client space for contract details. (Note that accumulated sick days from a former Collective Agreement would apply here to delay the start of LTD.)
Sick days for CONT-ED TEACHERS
Cont Ed teachers have a right to 2 sick days per year [Normes du travail]. If a cont-ed teacher falls sick and is not replaced, the teacher could use the sick day and be paid for the hours they would normally have taught on that day. The class could be canceled and shifted to another date. The teacher would then be paid for that additional class. If the teacher is replaced by a sub, the sub gets paid for the class and the teacher gets the paid sick day.