As a partial-load professor (teaching more than 6 hours up to 12 hours per week), you are a member of the academic bargaining unit and are covered by the Academic Employees Collective Agreement. This agreement extends to all partial-load and full-time faculty throughout all 24 Ontario colleges. The current 4-year collective agreement will expire on September 30, 2024.
As a member of this bargaining unit, you receive the salary, benefits and professional conditions that have been negotiated by the Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union (OPSEU), on your behalf. As such, union dues are automatically deducted from your pay. Even so, you are not a member of our local (Lambton Faculty Union, OPSEU local 125) until you have signed your membership card.
Membership into our local is free and comes with many advantages, including allowing you to have a voice during negotiations, and in the event of a strike, eligibility for strike benefits such as strike pay. An electronic membership application form is available here:
Here are some important links:
- Collective Agreement 2017-2021
- OPSEU and CEC Award 2022
- Advantages to signing your membership card
- Partial Load Registry
- Benefits Booklet – Partial Load
- CAAT Pension Plan Enrolment Forms
- List of Local 125 stewards, officers and committee representatives
- Union Basics – OPSEU
Partial Load Faculty Entitlements
Partial-load faculty are encouraged to make full use of their rights under the Academic Employees Collective Agreement (CA).
Confidentiality:
Any communication you have with your union local is held in strict confidence. It is always up to the faculty member to decide whether or not to bring a particular issue to management’s attention. Also, note that the Lambton Faculty Union, OPSEU Local 125, membership list is not shared with the College.
Initial Step Salary Calculation:
Your initial partial-load salary step is calculated by your manager. You should always ask your manager to explain how they arrived at that step. If you have any further issues regarding your initial step salary calculation, be sure to contact the union local.
Progression through Salary Grid:
As a partial-load faculty member, you progress to the next step on the salary grid each time you accumulate 10 months of service at the College. From October 1, 2017, one month of service credit is achieved for every calendar month that you teach 30 hours or more up to the day before the release of the 2022 Kaplan Award. From the date of release of the 2022 Kaplan Award, one month of service credit is achieved for every calendar month that you teach 28 hours or more. (Article 26.10 B and C).
Click here to learn more about Service Credits. Thanks to Humber Faculty Union, OPSEU Local 562 for sharing the video!
NOTE: You should always keep track of your months/hours of service and request a step increase if warranted. If you have not requested an earned increase and are now behind, understand that the College is required to make the correction AND provide you with retroactive pay.
Partial-Load Registry
Thanks to our 2017 strike, partial-load faculty now have increased job security. The CA requires Ontario Colleges to maintain a record of the job experience of every partial-load employee, including all of the courses they have taught on or after December 20, 2017, in a part-time, partial-load or sessional capacity and the departments/Schools where such courses were taught. You may provide the college with evidence of courses that you taught in a part-time, partial-load, or sessional capacity prior to December 20, 2017.
By April 30th in each year, a currently or previously employed partial-load employee must register their interest in being employed as a partial-load employee in the following academic year and the maximum number of teaching contact hours that they are prepared to teach (to a maximum of 12). Hiring priority is given to registered faculty who are either currently employed at Lambton College or who have at least 8 months of partial-load service in the last 4 academic years. Where a School determines there is a need to hire a partial-load employee to teach a course that has previously been taught by that registered partial-load employee, it will first offer the course to that partial-load faculty. In cases where two or more registered faculty qualify to teach a particular course, the person with the greatest number of service credits will be offered the course first, including as many sections as their schedule will allow. If you have questions about whether or not you have been offered the course(s) you deserved based on the partial-load registry rules, please speak to your Associate Dean. Contact the union local if assistance is required.
What are your BENEFITS under our collective agreement?
- Fully paid sick leave
- Extended health benefits
- premiums are 100% paid by LAMBTON (but faculty must register)
- benefits pay 85% of the cost of the following:
- services, while not confined to a hospital, of private duty registered nurses or registered trained attendants, if medically necessary, to an annual maximum of $25,000 per insured individual.
- eligible prescription drugs
- eligible medical services
- dental services required as the result of an accident
- benefits pay 90% of the cost of the following:
- paramedical services provided by: osteopathic practitioner, chiropractor, podiatrist, naturopath, massage therapist, speech therapist, physiotherapist, audiologist, optometrist, occupational therapist, psychologist, social worker and psychotherapist (Note: there is a maximum limit of $4750/year for all paramedical services combined)
- full medical insurance while travelling (100% of costs)
co-ordination of benefits (also works if you are enrolled at two colleges)
- Optional health benefits paid by faculty
- dental, vision, hearing, basic life insurance, dependent life insurance, critical illness insurance
- Benefit bridging between contracts
- Maternity/parental leave
- Pension plan option
- Salary/hourly rate step increases
- Priority hiring
- Tuition subsidy
To get your health benefits, you must:
- Ensure that you indicate on your contract that you are interested in benefits.
- Have a meeting with an HR representative to fill out your benefit forms. There is a time limit, so you should communicate with that individual as soon as possible.
Sick Leave: Leave is pro-rated based on the length of the contract and weekly teaching hours. For example, someone on a four-month contract, teaching 12 hours per week, is entitled to 19 hours of fully-paid sick time to care for themselves or members of their immediate family. Unused sick time should carry over if partial-load faculty are re-hired within six months (Article 26.08 B).
Extended Health: Premiums are fully paid by the College. Lambton requires that you complete the benefits application process to be enrolled. Extended health services, such as prescription drugs, are reimbursed at 85% by the Sun Life Insurance plan. Paramedical services, such as massage, physiotherapy, and acupuncture, are reimbursed at 90% by the Sun Life Insurance plan. If you are already covered under another plan (e.g. your spouse’s plan) you can co-ordinate your benefits and get up to 100% coverage at no cost to you. Medical Travel Insurance is covered at 100% (lifetime maximum of $2,000,000 per person).
Optional Health Benefits: Partial-load faculty have access to these plans, but the premiums are employee-paid. Again, the benefits application process must be completed. Once optional benefits are declined, these benefits are not available unless more than six months have expired between partial-load contracts (Article 26).
NOTE: If you have declined extended health or optional benefits because you are covered elsewhere, and if that coverage is lost, you have 30 days from the date of the loss of those benefits to apply for the extended health or optional benefits plan.
Bridging of Benefits: At the end of each partial-load contract, if the employee has a written contract for future employment, benefit coverage can be continued between contracts, at full cost to the employee. The collective agreement stipulates that “the College shall provide a written contract or written offer of future employment upon termination” when re-employment is anticipated (Article 26.06 D).
Reinstatement: When a partial-load employee is re-employed within six months, and is enrolled in benefit coverage, the waiting period for insurance plans is waived. So, for example, if you have benefits and teach until April 30th, then start teaching again in September, your benefits would restart the first day of your contract. You must bridge the gap between September 1st and the first day of your contract (Article 26.06 D).
Note: Since fall contracts do not begin until after Labour Day, benefits will not be active (covered) for the entire month of September. To maintain coverage, faculty must pay the premiums through the month of September.
Drug Card: Once a partial-load employee is signed up for coverage, they can register at www.sunlife.ca and print their own drug card.
Maternity/Parental Leave: You may be entitled to maternity/parental leave EI Insurance top-up pay for regularly scheduled days of work until the end of your employment contract (Article 26.07).
Pension Plan: As a College employee, you are eligible to join the CAAT defined benefit pension plan, effective the first day of your employment with the College. Non-full-time employees will be able to join the pension plan at any time while employed, and can purchase any period of service worked for an employer before joining the pension plan. Contact Human Resources to apply for the pension plan.
Tuition Subsidy: Partial-load faculty have the same entitlement as full-time to take courses at Lambton for $20 per course, including any Ministry-funded course and other programs or courses as mutually agreed.
Ways to reach us:
– in person: B2-252, Lambton College south campus
– by email: info@opseu125.ca (general inquiries)
We wish you the best of luck at Lambton College!