2024 Seniority List

The 2024 Seniority List is finally published on our website, but wait…

What is Seniority?

Seniority is a system used in workplaces and organizations to rank employees based on their length of service. Only Continuing faculty members earn seniority. Term faculty members accumulate “service in the bargaining unit,” which is converted to seniority when Term faculty members regularize. Seniority is often used as an objective measure to make employment-related decisions such as pay increases (steps), layoffs, and access to certain benefits.

In times of layoffs, seniority becomes a critical safeguard. It determines the order in which employees are retained or released, offering greater job security to long-serving members. The Collective Agreement explicitly states that seniority must be the primary consideration during workforce reductions, ensuring that decisions are based on clear, agreed-upon criteria rather than subjective judgment.

But that’s a huge problem when the list isn’t accurate!

We shared at the SGM that we knew the Seniority List had errors. We’ve learned that anyone who was part-time continuing AND took term top-up contracts may have been undercalculated, which is especially significant during labour adjustments! Continuing members who have always worked full-time aren’t likely to have these errors, and folx who are only taking term contracts calculate their service in the bargaining unit differently.

Here’s how Seniority should be calculated:

For Continuing Members:

Number of days employed (including all ULOA) multiplied by Full Time Equivalency (FTE, sometimes stated as a percentage) divided by the number of days per year. If you’ve worked at different percentages, you’d need to calculate those separately and then add them up together. Here’s an example:

Continuing members can earn a maximum of 100% seniority each year.

For Term Members:

The formula for determining the amount of service in the bargaining unit (seniority credit) you should get for a single-term contract equals 1.2 multiplied by the number of weekdays during the contract multiplied by Full Time Equivalency (FTE) divided by 260.89. The multiplication factor of 1.2 is used because section 1.02 of the Collective Agreement accounts for vacation paid out in lieu. Here’s an example:

Term members can earn more than 100% service in the bargaining unit per year. Upon becoming a continuing member, all service in the bargaining unit is converted into seniority.

For Part-time Continuing Members Who Take Term Top Up Contracts:

Hopefully, everything has been clear until now, even if the calculations can get complicated. Part-time continuing members should earn seniority according to BOTH calculations based on their continuing percentage and the term contracts taken, up to a maximum of 100% seniority each year. But that’s not what they are doing… They are undervaluing the term top-up contracts of all part-time continuing faculty members – and if that amount could be the difference between who in a department would be laid off – I know we’d all prefer to get that right!

But…. most of us don’t math, right?

What you need is a calculation spreadsheet! Thanks to our Labour Relations Advisor, Dominique, all you have to do is enter the dates of your employment, your % FTE, and all your various contracts, and the spreadsheet will tell you what your accrued seniority should be. For many of us (like me), the difference is less than 0.15 – probably due to a rounding or annualization error that is easily fixed and, as I’m not currently a target of a labour adjustment, moot. However, if you are in an area that is targeted or may be subject to transfer/bumping 0.15 may be the difference between which member keeps their job and which one is laid off.

The seniority list is important because it ensures fairness and consistency within the organization. It serves as a reference point for various employment-related decisions that we hope we never have to consider, such as qualification tie-breakers and layoffs. Currently, there are 470 continuing faculty members (of 603 total members) on the December 2023 list, and it is up to you to verify that your calculations are correct!

If you check your calculation and think your seniority isn’t accurate or if your salary scale didn’t increase at least +1 step for each FTE year you’ve been employed above your initial placement at the College, we need to know and review it with you. If you are in an area targeted for a labour adjustment, we will ensure that everyone in the department has an accurate calculation before any layoff notices are given.

These are difficult times, but we are here to help. Please get in touch with me if you have questions about your seniority or step placement or if you haven’t joined our Discord server, which is the best place for up-to-the-minute news and support.