Work to Rule update Jan 12

Student Information and FAQ

We absolutely encourage all Locals to adapt the following documents (or sections of them) into different media and formats, for distribution on different social media platforms.

Attached to this e-mail, please find a FAQ for Students that has been adapted from the FAQ that was generated by Local 556 (George Brown).  We hope that faculty will share it to students who have questions or are experiencing frustrations with work-to-rule.  

As well, you might choose to share the following brief overview of bargaining and work-to-rule, which was targeted to students:

Ten things Ontario College students should know about their professors’ current bargaining with the Colleges

Lastly, we continue to encourage all faculty to use the following text in the signature of their College emails: 

In response to the College Employer Council's decision to impose employment conditions following the College Faculty voted to support strike actions (https://www.collegefaculty.org/2021/12/17/opseu-sefpo-stands-in-support-of-college-faculty-members/), Ontario college faculty are now following work-to-rule guidelines established by the Faculty Bargaining Team.

Faculty have chosen to focus on our students' needs and not interrupt College courses with a strike at this time, while demanding that our employer negotiate a fair resolution to this labour dispute. Work-to-rule means that we will be working only the time outlined by our current contract and workload assignments, or job descriptions. This means that we may not be available for additional, volunteer work that we may normally do, or work outside of regular work hours. Therefore, we may take more time than usual to respond to emails or other forms of communication and any additional work-related requests.

Currently we are in Phase 2 of the planned work-to-rule job actions. For more information on these actions including a work-to-rule FAQ, please visit: https://www.collegefaculty.org/work-to-rule/.  We appreciate your patience and your support in our efforts to improve working conditions for Ontario college faculty and the learning conditions of Ontario college students.

Information for Partial-Load Faculty

One question that was asked on Monday was how, specifically, Partial-Load faculty should address the issue of insufficient time to complete their week’s work, when speaking with a supervisor.  

We propose the following language as a draft, to be modified to suit the circumstances at your own college, or the needs of each particular faculty member:  

"Hello __________,

As you know, in response to the imposition of terms and conditions by the CEC and the colleges, CAAT-A members are now engaged in a legal work-to-rule labour action. Under this action, all faculty members are to work to the letter of their job description or contract.

According to the CEC, the total workload hours per week for a ___-hour partial-load contract is ____ hours. I have now reached [am approaching] this total. Please advise on where I should direct the remaining work that exceeds the amount of time I have been attributed.

Thank you."

The teaching hours and workload hours can be filled in, based upon the following chart: 

TCH	Total Workload Hours incl. Teaching
7	15.19
8	17.36
9	19.53
10	21.70
11	23.87
12	26.04

Information for Coordinators

You communicated to us that coordinators remain targeted by management attempts to get them to “cross the line” and violate work-to-rule protocols.  While the bargaining team is happy to respond to your college’s senior management upon request, we also provide the following message that Local Presidents may consider adapting for use at their colleges, as they see fit.

Dear  ___________,

We are in receipt of communications directed to faculty from their Chairs regarding the College’s directing faculty to perform coordinator responsibilities beyond what has been approved by our current work-to-rule labour action.

We would like to note that the college faculty bargaining team (OPSEU/SEFPO) gave notice to strike on December 12, as required by the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act, and has been in a legal strike position since December 18.

For clarity, college faculty are engaged in work to rule, which is a form of strike action.  This is known to both council and the employer, given that the council has responded to OPSEU’s strike action on its website. 

The college faculty bargaining team and OPSEU have been clear about the scope of the current stage of its work to rule campaign, and has clearly communicated that its members will not be performing tasks outside of the strict letter of the requirements of their SWFs – as a result, such tasks are considered ‘struck work’ and the performance of such work is analogous to the crossing of a ‘picket line’.

Any direction by the employer to members not to engage in strike activity, or any threats or reprisal to members for engaging in strike activity, will be considered interference with the union and OPSEU will take any and all appropriate steps as may be required.

Sincerely,