August pay: solution for RPTs who were underpaid
Dear colleagues: we are following up on the problems many regular part-time faculty have encountered with pay for August. We met with HR, and believe we have found a solution to get you the pay you deserve.
As we advised you on 30 August, it turns out that the administration chose to pay regular faculty in August based on their commitment level, regardless of their workload in 2023/24. That was contrary to the discussions the CFA had with HR last May.
We met with HR about this last week and are happy to report that they are now willing to provide the additional pay - though they want additional paperwork from some faculty (see below). This is the response we received late on Tuesday:
University’s Approach to Compensation for the August 2024 Transition Month
Compensation at Commitment Level:
Faculty will be compensated based on their commitment level for the 2023/24 academic year.
Additional PD Compensation:
Faculty members who have completed professional development (PD) beyond their 2023/24 commitment level during the August 2024 transition month will be compensated for those additional hours, provided the PD proposal was submitted and approved by their Dean/Director/AVP. The University will require these approved PD proposals to confirm the additional hours of PD completed beyond their 2023/24 commitment level.
How to implement this:
If you are an RFT or an RPT who worked your commitment level in 2023/24, you do not need to do anything different. The PD report we had already advised you to submit through your department is fine.
If you are an RPT who worked above your commitment level in 2023/24, we ask that you complete two tasks, which HR is insisting on to justify topping up your August pay. They are only asking this for RPTs who worked above commitment last year.
1) Please make sure your 2023/24 PD report includes the following:
Due to the change in academic year, I performed two weeks’ worth of additional PD, pro rata to my workload in 2023/24, for a total of ___ days, including creative and scholarly activity and/or research in the period May through August 2024.
This additional PD is at the rate of 1.25 days per section. So, for example, if you worked a total of 6 sections in 2023/24, you should put 7.5 days into the blank above.
2) Please complete and give to your coordinator, in a separate document (template attached—click here), a PD proposal dated in May 2024, with the text above, but changing "I performed” to “I am performing.” (This is already in the template.) Please insert the same figure in the blank. Then submit that to your coordinator along with your report on PD from the past year.
For co-ordinators: we ask that you hold off on submitting the department’s PD proposals and reports to your dean until RPTs have had a chance to provide this special May proposal.
For other regular faculty: if your PD report is already based on your 2023/24 workload rather than your commitment level, it should already match the recommended text above. We just ask that you check to make sure your report on extra PD is based on your actual workload. HR is not asking for a special May PD report from anyone except RPTs who worked above commitment last year.
We regret the inconvenience of this procedure. We have explained to HR that the special PD proposal is not the way faculty propose and report PD, but they are insisting. Rather than drag this into a grievance, we want to secure the money for you asap. This is the best way to do so.
If you have questions, please attend the CFA general meeting on 17 September at 11:30 (here is the zoom link for this and all CFA GMs, third Tuesday of each month).
When will I receive the adjustment in Pay?
Since payroll for September is fixed this week, your pay for September won't include extra pay. We are talking with HR about a separate payment (not waiting until October payday), but first we have to confirm this process with them. However, we anticipate that they won’t authorize the payment until deans have received PD reports from departments.
We regret the continuing challenge of ensuring fair pay during the adjustment to the academic year. We hope that this will finally resolve the issue so we can move on and focus on what we are here to do: create a great community of teaching, learning, and scholarship.
In solidarity,
Tim Acton, CFA president, and CFA stewards Michael Begg, Doug Alards-Tomalin, and Diana Twiss