Workload & Mutual Agreement Forms (Know Your Collective Agreement)
With the four-week notice deadline for winter semester workload approaching, it’s essential that SAFA members know your rights and how you’re protected. SAFA is committed to making sure faculty are informed and supported on this topic.
What to Expect in Workload Assignments
Your workload should consist of Class Contact Hours (CCH), Classroom Management Activities (CMA), and Professional Duties activities (PD), all assigned by the Dean or Academic Chair in consultation with you. This assignment should be finalized at least four work weeks before the start of your duties, and it should include specific details like the CCH per course, course name & number, instruction mode, and maximum class size.
While not assigning numbers, workload assignments should also document a discussion between you and your AC about how much CMA is realistically needed per class to do prep and grading, and what professional duties, scholarly activity, and professional development activities are occurring during that same time period. See the Faculty Workload Guidelines Document for examples of CCH, CMA, and Professional Duties consideration when workload is assigned.
Mutual Agreement Forms are a Must!
If you are asked to work outside the Collective Agreement limits, know that you can say no with no repercussions or penalties. (Example of working outside our contract: Teach class more than 4 hours in a row or more than 6 hours in a day. Teach class before 8am, after 6pm, or on a weekend as part of your salaried position.) SAFA does not recommend agreeing to work outside our contract, as it weakens our position at the bargaining table, but if needed, follow the required process!
If you do agree to workload outside our contract, the only approved record is a Mutual Agreement Form from your Academic Chair. An email from an AC, a conversation in the hall, or a statement in a meeting do not protect your rights. Also, this form ensures that SAFA can monitor these exceptions for program-wide abuses.
If Things Don’t Add Up
If you feel your workload assignment doesn’t reflect the actual demands of the role, or if essential information is missing, you have the right to address it. The Workload Complaint Process allows you to submit concerns within five working days of receiving your assignment. Your SAFA rep is here to assist with this process, providing guidance and advocating for fair adjustments.
Take Action to Protect Your Rights
SAFA is here to protect your right to a fair, manageable workload. If you have questions or need help filing a complaint, reach out to your SAFA rep—they’re here to support you every step of the way!
In Solidarity,
Craig Coolahan
SAFA Labour Relations Officer
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Why I Wear a Poppy
Insights from Blair Howes, SAFA President.
*This article was originally sent out on Friday, November 8th, 2024. Due to a technical issue, not all of our members received the communication, so we are re-running it today.
Hello All, one of the recurring themes this time of year is Remembrance Day. Questions that have come from students and some from faculty are, Why is this day important? and secondly, Where do I get a poppy? So, I would like to share my story.
My dad’s family was huge – he had 7 brothers and 7 sisters, so you can imagine the date range from the oldest to the youngest sibling (the youngest uncle is now around age 82).
For a lot of years in my youth, I really wasn’t sure why we had time off from school in November, but I had an aunt who would come and bring fresh poppies to our house. To put that into context – their farm was located where the Canadian Tire store is now in Dalhousie, and their quarter mile long drive up from the 1A Highway (16 Ave NW) had rows and rows of poppies growing.
It wasn’t until my mid-teens that I started asking questions of the uncles and aunts who served in the military in their own youth. Many served in several branches of the Canadian military, RCAF, infantry and so forth; and all that had served, also deployed and returned home from the war.
One uncle in particular also served a long career here at SAIT, teaching in the petroleum engineering technology program. In the 1980’s, while I was attending SAIT as a student, we would meet for coffee, or we would go and have breakfast or just general chats. I was about 21 at the time and one of our general chats turned into me asking why did he serve – was he drafted or did he volunteer, etc. And his answer has always stuck with me – I didn’t go because I was forced to go, I went so that you wouldn’t have to go – which puzzled me to no end as I wasn’t even born when he served.
In that year, he invited me to the Royal Canadian Legion in Cochrane for the Remembrance Day service, so I donned my poppy and off I went. What I learned that day was about the horrors and hardships that many experienced – the day wasn’t about reminiscing and reliving, but more of a day of remembering and giving thanks to those who did not return and the sacrifice those people made for the people of my generation.
That day is burned in my memory, not just not for lessons I received that day, but also of the good things those aunts and uncles brought in my life, things like time spent learning to hunt and fish and forage in the forest for berries. (I have filled many 1-gallon ice cream pails with wild cranberries, saskatoons, and black berries and lots of time hiking in my search for those.) And of course, for the general supports and good nature a large family brings to me and my cousins across Alberta, and the great memories I have of my youth.
So, at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month every year, I don a poppy and spend time remembering.
For those who have come before me and those who still struggle today, and for those who don’t return,
Lest we forget,
That is why I wear a poppy in the month of November every year.
Cheers,
Blair