The CCFA Guide to Faculty Leaves

The CCFA has negotiated a number of leaves faculty members are entitled to, but the nature of Collective Agreements makes them tricky to locate. Here’s the skinny on what to do if you need a break:

1. You have 30 sick days if you get sick or injured

If you are unable to work due to illness or injury, you are entitled to 100% of your salary for the first 30 calendar days.

Procedures for reporting sick days will differ slightly by School, but typically the Faculty Member will need to fill out a leave form and submit it to your Dean or Director. Check with your Chair for the process specific to your School.

This benefit applies to any “single and continuous illness or injury,” not per calendar year. That means that if you break a leg in September and miss 20 days of work, your sick leave resets once you recover, and you are entitled to another 30 days of paid leave in case you fall ill in December. This applies equally to Term and Continuing faculty.

If your illness or injury lasts longer than 30 days, you’ll need to apply for short-term disability (STD) leave, which pays 70% of your salary for a maximum of 21 weeks (about five months). As it does with all paid leaves, the Employer will continue to pay your health and welfare benefit premiums, and you will continue to accrue seniority as if you were still working. You will also have the option to buy back your pension payments—and the Employer will cover its share.

All faculty enrolled in the Extended Health Benefit plan, including term faculty, are eligible for short-term disability leave.

If you think your illness may keep you away from work for more than 30 days, please contact the Union at ac.ytlucafnusomac@afcc as soon as possible.

The Collective Agreement also grants long-term-disability (LTD) for leaves greater than 21 weeks at 70% of your compensation. Contact the Union if you have questions about LTD leave.

The Sick Leave provision can be found in Article 15.01 in the Local Agreement. Short- and Long-term Disability leaves are covered under Article 9.3 of the Common Agreement.

2. What to expect (from your Union) when you’re expecting

Any faculty member expecting a child, whether Term or Continuing, is eligible for maternity or parental leave. These benefits combine provisions from the Collective Agreement, the Employment Standards Act (ESA), and Employment Insurance (EI), so it’s wise to connect with HR and the Union early to help navigate it all.

You can start maternity leave as early as 13 weeks before your due date, but you must give the Employer at least four weeks’ notice. You may wish to co-ordinate your vacation entitlement with your planned leave dates to delay its start.

Maternity Leave

The birth parent is entitled to:

• 17 weeks of unpaid leave
• Supplemental Employment Benefit (SEB) top-up to 95% of average base salary for weeks 2–16 of the leave (Week 1 is paid at 100%).

“Average base salary” means your average salary over the previous 12 months. EI maternity benefits only cover 55% of salary up to $595/week—so SEB is a meaningful top-up.

Parental Leave

Parents—birth, adoptive, or common-law—are entitled to up to 12 months of unpaid parental leave. You may receive up to 35 weeks of SEB and EI coverage at 85% of your average base salary (or spread this amount over 61 weeks under the Extended EI option). The final week of parental leave pays 100% of your base average salary.

parental leave.

As with all paid leaves, the Employer continues to cover extended health benefits. If you buy back your pensionable service, the Employer matches its portion, and you continue to accrue seniority.

Maternity and Parental Benefits can be found (stay with me) in Article 14 of the local agreement, Article 8 of the Common Agreement, Part 6, Articles 50 & 51 of the B.C. Employment Standards Act, and Canada’s Federal Employment Insurance Benefits.

3. It’s not hard to take an unpaid leave if you need one

Unpaid Leaves of Absences (ULOA) must be granted “unless the request creates serious problems for the Employer.” This sets a fairly high bar, since the Employer can hire a term or part-time faculty member to replace you in most circumstances—especially if they have sufficient notice. (The most common reason for denial is insufficient notice.)

You can request an initial unpaid leave of up to one year, renewable (with Employer approval) up to a maximum of three years. We recommend aligning your leave dates with term contract dates for replacements.

Partial leaves are also possible. For example, a full-time faculty member is entitled to take a 50% ULOA while retaining 50% of their teaching schedule or other normal duties.

During an unpaid leave, the Employer does not pay benefits, but you may buy back your pensionable service at its full cost later (see Section 5).

If your unpaid leave involves service of interest to the College, you may opt to apply for a Professional Development leave instead—or for long-term PD Funding. Email ac.nusomac@DP-AFCC if you have any questions about accessing this leave or funds.

ULOA provisions can be found in Article 13.01 of the Local Agreement and 7.2 of the Common Agreement.

4. Professional Development Leave exists (and you can take one)

Professional Development leave is an underused benefit for Continuing Faculty. As long as the Employer agrees that it is of value to the College, you can take a (usually unpaid) Professional Development leave while while continuing to accrue seniority and salary step advancement.

You can also combine it with your Scheduled Development (SD) time in the first year. That is, if you take an unpaid Professional Development leave, you can coordinate it with two months of paid SD time. In scenarios where you are pursuing an advanced graduate degree like a PhD, you might also be able to combine it with long-term Professional Development funding.

Interested? Email ac.ytlucafnusomac@afcc.

5. Leaves: there are a lot of them

There are many paid leaves available to faculty through the Local and Common Collective Agreements and the Employment Standards Act. Some things to keep in mind:

1. Faculty continue to accrue seniority during any leave, paid or unpaid
2. During paid leaves, the Employer will pay benefit and welfare costs
3. After an unpaid leave, you can buy back your “pensionable service” (covering both your and the Employer’s portion—check your cheque to see how much this will be). If you can afford it, this is usually a good idea. After a paid leave, if you buy back your pension, the Employer will pay for its portion.
4. All leaves, with the exception of Professional Development Leave and Deferred Salary Leave, apply to both term and Continuing faculty.
5. In the Local Agreement, “family” is only used to mean “immediate family,” but we get to use the definition of family in the Common agreement which is much broader. That means that leaves like family illness, bereavement, and others can apply to extended family and in-laws (not perfect yet, but we’re working on it!)

Here is a list of the more commonly used leaves:

• Deferred Salary Leave (13.04 & Appendix D)
• Bereavement Leave: 5 days with pay (13.02)
• Compassionate Care Leave: 27 weeks without pay, but with benefits, (7.8.1 in Common)
• Family Illness Leave: 5 days with pay (7.7 Common). The Employer may offer more.
• Cultural Leave for Indigenous Employees: 3 days paid leave (7.17 Common)
• Leave for Public or Union Office: unpaid (Article 11 in the Local)

Email the Union if you have any questions about these leaves or any found in the Collective Agreement or Employment Standards Act.