Vacation Letter of Understanding – SAFA members
Hello Faculty Colleagues:
Here is the Vacation Letter of Understanding.
The important points are: (I’ve added some clarification in italics.)
- This LOU will apply to all employees who are entitled to earn vacation in accordance with the Collective Agreement. (This pertains to Permanent Full time / Part time Faculty. Temporary Salaried Faculty will be subject to the 10 day notice period and will be expected to take their accrued vacation by the end of their contract.)
- An academic staff member eligible for an annual vacation leave in accordance with Section 32 or 33 of the Collective Agreement shall receive their yearly allotment of earned vacation days for the period July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 on or before May 16, 2020.
- Vacation Leave shall be taken at such time(s) as determined by the Vice President Academic or their designee. Where possible the Vice President Academic or their designee, will consider an employee’s previous vacation request. Employees will be provided with two (2) weeks written notice of the commencement of their Vacation Leave. (There must be written – not verbal – notice).
- Subject to operational requirements as determined by SAIT, employees shall be scheduled to take their banked accrued Annual Leave (calculated to June 30, 2020) and future earned vacation entitlements (calculated to June 30, 2021), during the period of May 1, 2020 to August 15, 2020. If a balance remains after August 15, 2020, it shall be taken in accordance to an agreed upon plan between the employee and their leader and, where possible, shall consist of a block of consecutive work days.
- An employee who is absent because of GSL or Long-Term Disability, or who is in the receipt of Workers Compensation, or who is on a Leave of Absence shall have no extraordinary rights under this Letter of Understanding and shall be subject to this LOU on the same basis as other employees, once they have returned to work.
- For the purposes of this LOU, should an employee resign or retire from SAIT or have their position abolished, any negative balance shall not be deducted from any final payroll payment nor will it be required to be reimbursed.
- Employees will not be required to complete any of the requisite preparations for the Fall 2020 Semester prior to call back date. Their presence is not required for online meetings, student inquiries or other typical obligations.
- If an employee has an adjunct contract during the period of April 1, 2020 to August 31, 2020 this contract shall continue unless cancelled due to non-delivery of the course/program.
- A combination of vacation and work days is allowable by mutual agreement between the employee and the employer.
- Employees may be given ten (10) days’ notice to return to work should the operational requirement become necessary prior to August 15, 2020.
All employees will be required to complete the leave report on the 16th and the end of the month to ensure that the vacation balances stay up to date. The employee will be contacted by their academic leader to complete this if not completed.
This LOU becomes effective upon date of execution by both parties and will expire upon the date the renewal collective agreement is made effective.
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 last week 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.
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,