Volume 27, Issue 3
February 2017
Stacey Merritt, 1st Vice President
You are reading this article part way through the Winter 2017 semester. Hopefully, you are finding that your workload matches your SWF. In other words, the hours attributed on your SWF to the tasks you are performing is equivalent to the number of hours you actually spend performing those tasks.
Unfortunately, for some faculty this may not be the case. Despite the care they took to ensure their Winter 2017 SWFs were accurate, it is possible that they now find the work they must do is taking them longer than the total hours given for that work on their SWF.
There can be many reasons why this sometimes happens. Common examples include:
- Faculty have been given time on the second page for complementary functions such as advising or mentoring students while they are on placement or other learning activities. When doing that work, faculty find that the time it takes to assist those students is more than the hours listed on their SWFs.
- The faculty have a higher than expected number of students requiring disability accommodation. As a result, the six complementary hours on the second page of their SWFs (time given for performing administrative tasks and providing out of class assistance to students) does not properly compensate them for the time they spend assisting those students.
- The number of students in their classes is higher than the original estimates that were made when their SWFs were written.
If you believe your SWF and your workload are not compatible, action can be taken to correct the discrepancy, despite the fact that you agreed to your SWF back in November. Article 11.02 A6 in our collective agreement explains the process. The first step is to speak to your academic manager (your dean, associate dean, etc.) and request a correction. If an agreement cannot be reached, speak to your union steward or a union officer for help. Ultimately, the matter can be referred to the college’s Workload Monitoring Group (WMG) and they will examine the situation.
Please remember, no employee of the college works for free. By ensuring your workload matches your SWF, you may find that you are eligible to be paid overtime. You are also helping to ensure more accurate SWFs are written in the future.