The Right to Self-determination of Non-Teaching Period Activities

Several years ago, Glennyce Sinclair, then Dean of Health Sciences, wrote a memo to Pat Dockrill directly ordering her to attend meetings during a non-teaching week. This memo gave rise to a grievance by Pat, in which she asked for an arbitrator to consider ``whether the College can require a teacher to consent to attend a scheduled curriculum review meeting in any non-teaching period pursuant to Article 11.08.'' That grievance was heard by arbitrator Ms Jane Devlin. Her award, which was handed down on May 7, 1991, concluded as follows:

"The board must answer the question posed by the parties in the negative. The board finds that the College cannot require a teacher to consent to attend a scheduled curriculum review meeting in any non-teaching period pursuant to Article 11.08 of the Collective Agreement. In the Board's view, curriculum review is a matter of workload within Article 11.01 of the Agreement. Accordingly, any dispute in this regard must be dealt with by a Workload Resolutions Arbitrator and is beyond the jurisdiction of the Board."

In her rationale for her decision, Ms Devlin carefully considered the distinction in Article 11.08 between an "activity initiated by the teacher and by the College" and "a function which is appropriate to the professional role of a teacher which is assigned by the College." She also examines Article 11.01 F and observes that "complementary functions ... may be assigned by the College and shall be attributed on an hour for hour basis." She concludes that "Although as a practical matter, teachers may be involved in the scheduling of meetings of the Faculty Curriculum committee, nevertheless, it is clear that the College requires the teachers to participate in such meetings. The Board finds, therefore, that curriculum review is properly described as an assigned function..."

In summary we believe that this award confirms our original public position that the non-teaching period is there for you to: Complete your evaluations Revise and replace your notes and classroom aids Engage in P.D. of your choice Prepare for the next semester

Do any other activity for which you may wish to volunteer, provided it is not scheduled.

If you feel like volunteering to do something extra during the non-teaching period, go ahead. But remember, they cannot order you to do anything unless they put it on an SWF issued during a teaching week and give you credit for every hour it takes for you to do it! Even then they can not tell you when .. or where to do the work.. only by when it must be completed.