So You Went and Joined a Union

This post highlights the things that most affect faculty—salary, benefits and job security. Email any questions to ac.ytlucafnusomac@afcc.

No matter if you are term, continuing, or probationary, all faculty members are part of the CCFA with nearly identical rights and benefits.

Welcome to the Camosun College Faculty Association. It might be too early to close read our CCFA 2022-2025 Collective Agreement, but you’ll want to bookmark it for later.

Have a look at the Wage Table and Check Your Cheque (especially to see if you were placed on the correct step on the salary scale).

All faculty, including term faculty, are also eligible for Professional Development Funding, up to $4000 per fiscal year. Part-time faculty are eligible for a prorated amount.

You may also be interested in what to do if you get sick, so check out the CCFA Guide to Faculty Leaves.

Am I eligible for benefits?

Yes! Term Faculty are eligible for Extended Health Benefits (including professional services like massage therapy) and Psychological Services as long as they have contracts of longer than one month. The Employer pays premiums for full-time faculty (continuing and eligible term), and pays a prorated rate for part-time faculty.

Short and long-term disability benefits are available to term faculty who have been employed at the College for at least four months with at least 50% of full-time equivalent (FTE) employment. Full-time term employees who have worked continuously for at least four months are eligible for life insurance and accidental death and dismemberment. For eligible term faculty, disability, life, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance benefits are all 100% employer paid.

Term faculty members who have worked for 16 weeks or more with at least 50% FTE employment are eligible for Dental Care.

See all benefits on our Health Benefits Summary page.

How can I stay working here?

As a term faculty member, you can improve your job security through earning the Right of First Refusal (RoFR) and Regularization. Use our Contract Tracking Sheet to track your work history.

Right of First Refusal (Clause 1.02g) is the right to be offered work up to a specific percentage of full-time equivalent (FTE) employment before that work is offered to any other non-Continuing faculty member. When you earn RoFR, you have a right to any work for which you are qualified up to that FTE percentage.

Without RoFR, the College can assign work to a term faculty member (or withhold it) for any reason, and Employees have little recourse. The only significant right to work a term faculty member has when they are hired is that the College must bundle work assignments up to at least 50% FTE as long as it is available (and the faculty member accepts it). No faculty member, whether term or Continuing, has a right to teach specific courses. 

A term faculty member is eligible for RoFR when they are employed at any percentage (including a single course) for at least two semesters in each of two consecutive years (i.e. any two semesters in the first year and any two in the second). In cases where a term faculty member only teaches a specific course once a year—and they teach that course for three years in a row—the term faculty member earns RoFR to teach that specific course.

RoFR is a right, but you still need to apply. Contact your school for the appropriate procedure, but there is usually an application form to complete. Send it to your Dean or Director, while cc’ing your Chair. If you don’t get a response within a few weeks, email ac.ytlucafnusomac@afcc.

Earning RoFR means you are entitled to a specific quantum or amount of work in a specific department. This quantum, or FTE employment percentage, should be directly related to the amount of work you performed in the two years prior to earning RoFR. You are now entitled to be offered any courses you are qualified to teach, or, for non-teaching faculty, any work you are qualified to do, but only in the department in which you earned RoFR. If you turn it down (you are permitted to turn down work for one semester after each two terms worked), you must be offered available work again the following term.

You can only earn RoFR in one department at a time. That is, if you teach in multiple departments, earning RoFR in one department does not entitle you to work in another department. You can, however, have RoFR in more than one department; you can even have RoFR in one department while working as part-time continuing faculty in another.

Regularization (Clause 1.04.d) is the process through which a term faculty member converts to Continuing status with all the attendant rights, including job security and Scheduled Development.

The Regularization application process is twofold: you must pass both the retrospective (a consistent pattern of work) and prospective (a reasonable expectation of future work) tests.

To pass the retrospective test, a term faculty member must work the equivalent of at least eight weeks of full-time equivalent employment in each of two semesters in each of two consecutive years. The resulting employment must amount to at least 32 weeks of full-time work. This will result in an average workload of at least 50% in each year.

To pass the prospective test, a term faculty member must have a reasonable expectation of at least 50% FTE employment averaged over two semesters in the next year. If you believe you have met the retrospective test but aren’t sure about the status of future work, apply anyway and email ac.ytlucafnusomac@afcc to keep us informed.

When you believe you have met the criteria, contact the CCFA and fill out the Regularization Application form on the Camosun Intranet and let us know you have applied. After sending the application form to your relevant HR representative, you should hear back within four weeks. If it takes longer than this, email the Union for advice.

If your RoFR or Regularization applications are rejected, and you don’t understand why, email ac.ytlucafnusomac@afcc. We can help!

The most important and useful thing you can do as a new Union member is to stay in contact and stay informed. Email us, call us, join our Discord server, and send us your member details. Better yet, drop by our Union office in Young 221. We’d love to meet you!