Started 12:01am, March 02, 2022
Focus
- Work-to-rule must impact the functioning of the colleges in order to work as a bargaining strategy to bring the Council back to the table to discuss faculty’s needs.
- The colleges and CEC have chosen to abandon negotiations and to force faculty to work only under imposed conditions.
- All actions below specifically focus on administrators, and minimize impact on students.
Continue to …
- Avoid performing struck work from Phase 1 and Phase 2. Phases 3 actions are added to the existing list of struck work.
- Focus on students’ needs and support their learning.
- Maintain contact with students and keep them informed, including via college systems.
- Maintain contact with your Local and attend union activities and meetings. Sign up for and follow bargaining updates.
- Consult your Local before following directions from your manager that may conflict with the work-to-rule.
- Take part in ongoing solidarity actions.
Remember:
- Struck work is an organized form of protected strike action as defined under the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act.
- The list below is struck work, and should not be undertaken by any bargaining unit member. Engaging in struck work is equivalent to crossing a picket line.
- Work-to-rule means that you do not follow management direction that contravenes what the team has identified as struck work.
If you have any questions, contact your union local for assistance.
Phase 3 Actions
Mode of Delivery: Face-to-face, Online, Hy-flex
- No multimodal (e.g., “hy-flex”) delivery as part of the return to campus this semester. In other words, do not teach online and in-class simultaneously.
- If you are directed to move your existing course(s) to “hy-flex”, it is up to you to determine how you will incorporate in-class and/or online delivery (for example, for a 3 TCH class you can decide to teach: 2 hours in-class and 1 hour online; all 3 hours in-class; or all 3 hours online).
- If you are directed to move an online class into a face-to-face classroom, you should decide whether that is appropriate for your course and students.
- If you are assigned an online course, the professor or instructor continues to determine the best method for teaching: synchronous or asynchronous.
- Do not record, consent to recordings, or post recordings of live/synchronous classes via a college LMS or college-run system. Alternatives may include a private YouTube channel, video files in DropBox, or another cloud-based platform, for example.
Adhering to Attributed Time for Evaluation
- Do not grade assignments or calculate or submit grades over reading/intersession week.
- Do not grade beyond hours attributed, even if your grading is delayed.
- Both FT and PL: Simplify the marking of summative assignments/finals to enable them to be graded within the time you are attributed. This may mean no feedback beyond the grade. Other options may include submitting “pass/fail” grades, if allowable by regulatory bodies.
- For Full-time faculty: Do not engage in evaluation work beyond the time attributed on your SWF, or beyond the end date of your SWF.
Data Entry for Evaluation (Including final grades for 7-week courses)
- Do not permanently enter grades into LMS or on colleges’ systems such as BANNER, Brightspace, D2L, Canvas, or Blackboard. It is fine to provide individual assignment grades to students by e-mail or another method that does not store grades on the LMS for a prolonged period. Keep a complete record of grades offline, but do not leave assignment grades sitting on the LMS (see videos re: temporary posting of grades on various LMS).
- For Partial-Load faculty: Submit all final grades by the last day of your contract. Simplify your grading as needed, to facilitate this.
- Submit final grades either on paper (either dropped-off or mailed) or by e-mail as a photo. If e-mailing, print (or write) out final grades on paper first, then photograph it and submit the photo as an e-mail attachment.
- Provide no breakdown of the marks leading to final grades to supervisor/department
Academic Integrity/Dishonesty Work, Supplemental Assignments, and Grade Appeals
- Complete only the basic paperwork for reporting academic dishonesty (e.g., send a copy of the student’s work, links to plagiarized sources, and a very short summary of the nature of academic dishonesty that you are reporting). The rest of the process should be completed by your supervisor.
- When referring student work for academic integrity concerns, send the student the following message to the student: “Due to a concern regarding Academic Integrity a mark for your assignment/test will not be entered until such time as the Academic Integrity process has been concluded.”
- Do not complete or grade supplemental work/exams beyond the scope of your SWF or contract.
Non-Teaching Week (Reading Week, etc.)
- Do no college-initiated activities, including PD, meetings, or student orientations
- Perform faculty-initiated activities (including PD) only
- Do no evaluation or preparation of assigned courses
- Coordinators: Do no coordinator duties
- Partial-Load who are not paid for this week: do no work for the college
Coordinators, Librarians, Counsellors
- Except where you have been assigned specific tasks with time for their completion, prioritize own work according to your needs and hours.
- Coordinators: Perform no coordinator work during non-teaching weeks.
- Coordinators: STOP participating in contract faculty hiring, including making hiring recommendations to managers.
Other
- FT faculty members (including counsellors and librarians): Inform your supervisor which 10 working days in this academic year you will be taking for PD days. It is up to your supervisor–not you–to make alternate plans for the completion of assigned work that you would otherwise have been doing on those days.
- Do not attend grade appeals.
Any questions about your specific circumstances? Contact your Local union for assistance.
Other Bargaining Updates
Arbitrator awards improvements far beyond those offered by Employer in negotiations
Click here to download a PDF of the bulletin The award affects areas including:• Equity;• Indigenization;• Partial-load job security;and acknowledges workload associated with multi-modal courses. This is an historic moment in CAAT-A’s continued fight for equity, job...
Ontario College Faculty Achieve Historic Gains in new Collective Agreement
Toronto – Fifteen months after the commencement of a round of bargaining that included the largest work-to-rule faculty job action in the history of Canadian Colleges and Universities, labour negotiations between OPSEU/SEFPO’s college faculty division and the College...
College faculty arbitration update
OPSEU/SEFPO CAAT Academic and the CEC participated in a mediation/arbitration September 7-9, 2022. Following the mediation part of the proceeding, an arbitration occurred on September 9, 2022. The arbitrator’s award will form the new collective agreement and it is...
College faculty bargaining team statement
The college faculty bargaining team has issued the following statement: Arbitrator William Kaplan has imposed a media blackout on the upcoming voluntary mediation-interest arbitration between the colleges’ and college faculty bargaining teams. There will be no further...
Joint statement by OPSEU/SEFPO and the College Employer Council
OPSEU/SEFPO’s college faculty bargaining team and the College Employer Council have issued the following statement: The parties have reached an agreement to enter binding interest arbitration and the strike that was scheduled to commence at 12:01 am on March 18, 2022,...
College faculty to resume talks with employer
Toronto – With some 16,000 college faculty set to go on strike at 12:01 Friday morning, the College Employer Council (CEC) and the faculty bargaining team have agreed to meet Thursday. “We were encouraged that the CEC replied to our letter and have agreed to meet...
College faculty set strike deadline
TORONTO – Some 16,000 faculty at Ontario’s 24 public colleges say they will go on strike at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, March 18 if the College Employer Council (CEC) does not agree to voluntary binding interest arbitration. The faculty bargaining team sent an open letter...
College faculty reject contract, call on employer to negotiate or arbitrate
TORONTO – Ontario college faculty have rejected a contract offer from their employer, and OPSEU/SEFPO President Warren (Smokey) Thomas hopes the result will trigger a return to the bargaining table. “I am convinced a negotiated settlement is there and within reach,”...
Legal Brief Supports Faculty Proposals
Throughout this round of bargaining, the College Employer Council (CEC) has repeatedly refused to negotiate significant issues regarding workload, staffing, or fairness for partial-load faculty. They have justified their obstinacy by claiming that changes to these...
Information for OPSEU/SEFPO members in the CAAT-Academic Division about the February 15-17 forced-offer vote
A forced-offer vote will be held in February for college faculty members represented by OPSEU/SEFPO starting February 15. The vote was scheduled after the College Employer Council (CEC) asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) last week to schedule the online...
Five reasons to REJECT the CEC’s forced offer
Click here for a printable PDF version The College Employer Council’s forced offer fails. It’s a terrible contract that fails faculty, fails students and threatens to harm the entire college system. All faculty should vote to reject the colleges’ offer, because: (x)...
Dates confirmed for the College Employer Council’s forced-offer vote
The College Employer Council (CEC) filed an application with the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) yesterday for a forced-offer vote. Their latest offer includes only a slight change from the offer they tabled on November 23, 2021. It also follows its decision to...