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April 2024 Newsletter

April 10, 2024
News and Updates

Welcome

In this edition of the CEC newsletter, we recognize two Colleges named Hamilton-Niagara top employers, and provide an update on part-time support staff bargaining, and the academic workload taskforce.


What's Going On?

Colleges Named in 2024 Hamilton-Niagara's Top Employers competition Webinar Recap: Calculation of the ltd elimination period
Two Colleges have been named in this year’s Hamilton-Niagara Region’s Top Employers 2024. Employers are compared to other organizations in their field to determine which offers the most progressive and forward-thinking programs.  This designation is based on eight criteria: Workplace, Work atmosphere and social; Health, financial and family benefits; Vacation and time off; Employee communications, Performance management; training and skills development; and Community involvement.

Congratulations to Mohawk College and Niagara College for making the list. Some of the reasons for their recognitions include the College tuition subsidies for courses at the Colleges and the generous maternity and parental leave top-ups.
To learn more about what make them top employers visit:
https://www.canadastop100.com/niagara/

On March 5th CEC hosted a webinar on the calculation of the LTD elimination period.  In this webinar we provided an overview of the LTD elimination period, and included examples on how to apply this calculation to STD/LTD cases at your College.  Topics covered included the following:

  • New long-term Disability (LTD) process improvements
  • What is the LTD elimination period?
  • Components to consider when calculating the LTD elimination period
  • Accessing banked sick credits on completion of the LTD elimination period
  • Calculating the LTD elimination period – examples

A recording is available on the CEC website here.

Bargaining Update

Part-time Support Staff

The CEC and Part-time Support Staff met the week of Monday March 5 – Thursday March 8, 2024, to continue negotiating a new collective agreement. Topics such as sexual harassment, seniority, and job postings resulted in meaningful discussions. The current collective agreement expired on January 31, 2024. It will remain unchanged and in effect until a new collective agreement is reached.

The parties will meet again in June to continue negotiations.



Full-time and Partial-Load Academic Employees

Workload Taskforce

As part of the September 2022 Kaplan Award, OPSEU and the Colleges have been tasked to undertake joint research to examine the impact of specific issues relating to “the assignment of work to full-time faculty under Article 11 and Partial-Load Faculty under Article 26”. 
The most recent example of the research undertaken by the Taskforce is a survey, which was distributed in January, and the Workload Taskforce is currently analyzing the results.


The Taskforce will prepare a report with recommendations based on information collected through its various research initiatives which will help guide the parties in bargaining this summer.