Fiscal/vacation year changes versus temporary layoffs
Hello Faculty Colleagues:
I thought I’d try to add some clarity around the vacation issue in light of Roy Daykin’s communication of Tuesday.
SAIT has indicated they are going to move their fiscal year into alignment with that of the GoA – April 1 to March 31. They’ve also proposed that they want to change the way vacation is done (Roy Daykin’s email of Tuesday). Currently, you earn vacation this year to be used next year. SAIT wants to change that to having a full 43 vacation day entitlement deposited in your “vacation bank” at the start of the Academic year – which they also want to change to April 1 to March 31. But, because of the complexity involved in doing these changes – the academic year and vacation entitlement has tendrils throughout the Collective Agreement – we’ve advised SAIT that these changes must come to the bargaining table.
Thus – assuming we go with SAIT’s plan – your vacation for use in 2021/22 would be deposited in your vacation bank April 1, 2021.
One of the main components of a vacation usage LoU that SAIT wants is the ability to designate when you will go on vacation this spring – May, June, July and August. Further, SAIT has indicated that there will continue to be some courses delivered through the summer, which, in turn will require some Faculty to continue working – including Librarians and Education Counsellors. I’m not sure how many or if it would be complete work weeks or some from of vacation / work days at this point. SAIT is expecting Faculty to return to campus around August 15, but the Letter of Understanding allows SAIT to recall Faculty from vacation with two weeks notice if there is a need for more preparation.
As part of the Vacation usage Letter of Understanding negotiations, SAIT will commit to no temporary layoff of permanent faculty. However, if the Fall semester is lost or significantly impacted, I expect we will have to revisit that. In that case, SAIT will have to negotiate with SAFA. A temporary layoff would be just that – temporary. And would not impact your years of service, benefits or pension among other things. But we’re not there yet.
Finally, as I alluded in my President’s Message to Faculty on Tuesday, SAIT has been clear that, in the absence of a vacation LoU, they are prepared to temporarily layoff faculty. I believe there will still be positions abolished but they also said there would be more if we couldn’t come to an agreement over vacation that would allow SAIT to meet the GoA reduction of expenditure demands. But rest assured, our main concern is to find a way to make sure faculty continue to be paid until we’re in a better position to see what the Fall semester looks like.
Having said all that and despite the tone of Roy’s email, this isn’t completed until we have a satisfactory Letter of Understanding regarding vacation usage. I believe we’re close on that.
I hope this helps clarify things a bit – but feel free to email if you have any questions. Also, feel free to relay this info to any colleagues who have questions.
In Solidarity and Service to Members,
Blair Howes, SAFA President