Each month, the Advocacy Committee answers your questions about the AD 10 policies (aka, your terms and conditions of employment.)

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Hello, I’m Tracey Ferris, APSA’s Members Services Coordinator and an advocate on our Advocacy Committee. I’m answering your questions related to our AD 10 policies. Questions? Submit them anonymously here. These questions will be answered in a monthly advocacy corner issue. For an immediate answer, please contact us.

 

Hi, I have heard that there is a change in overtime pay regardless of APSA manager or non-manager status. All members of APSA who work overtime and have an agreement or sign-off by their supervisor are entitled to overtime pay. Is that true?

If you are or know a manager who is getting overtime pay, please get in touch; we’d love to speak with you. The last official information that we're aware that the University sent to APSA comes from an email sent in August 2020: it noted that the University would comply with the Employment Standards Act for non-managers and stated that:

“An APSA employee who is not a manager defined by the Employment Standards Act (ESA) and who works hours in addition to APSA’s standard work day/week should receive time-and-a-half pay for work over the standard workday and double-time for work over twelve hours/on holidays.

"An APSA employee who is a manager and who works hours in addition to APSA’s standard work day/week will be compensated with time in lieu. Time in lieu is compensated based on an employee’s straight-time rate of pay. Time in lieu should be taken within a reasonable time after it has been earned, which takes into consideration both the APSA employee’s preferences and the University’s operational needs.”

APSA responded with this on August 25, 2020:

“APSA doesn’t approve or condone this recent communication from the University. The communication was authored by the University with little input from APSA. We’re also concerned that the communication may recommend procedures that are in contravention of other aspects of the APSA agreement, such as the variable scheduled workweek.

"For the reasons listed above, APSA considers this communication to you as an interim measure put in place by the University as a result of their admission that they were in contravention of the ESA.”

 

With regards to overtime hours for non-managerial APSA staff, who decides whether the time is paid out or banked as lieu? Some managers in my department give their staff a choice, while others discourage or outright don’t allow the option of lieu time.

According to the Employment Standards Act (ESA), non-managerial staff may choose to bank their overtime, so the employee, not the supervisor, determines it. Again, the University is complying with the ESA and states in the above memo that “An employee can request to bank their overtime hours instead of having them paid out. All requests must be submitted in writing.”

 

Hi APSA, I’ve been reading your emails about the Human Rights Office, the Bullying and Harassment policy and the Research Ethics Board. Can you tell me what’s going on? 

With the support of the employee groups in the Employee Council, SFUFA is spearheading a lot of this action. The Employee Council has been concerned about the unilateral changes and the lack of following SFU’s governance procedures. The council is also concerned about a lack of “arm’s length” committees and offices that operate as checks and balances for the University. We’ll keep you all informed as the process unfolds.