In the Matter of Workload Resolution Arbitration
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IN THE MATTER OF WORKLOAD RESOLUTION ARBITRATION BETWEEN: ONTARIO PUBLIC SERVICE EMPLOYEES UNION ("the Union") -AND- CENTENNIAL COLLEGE ("the College") CONCERNING THE Complaints of Professors Debbie Cameron and Marian Smith BRIAN MCLEAN Workload Resolution Arbitrator Appearances: For the Union: Deb Warren Chris Brown Debbie Cameron Marian Smith - f t .11 - rot the k_Aittugu,-. Nancy Fisher Ellen Bull Hearing held in Scarborough on February 3, 2012 2 AWARD OUTLINE OF THE DISPUTE Professors Smith and Cameron are teachers in the College's school of nursing. Although the two teachers have somewhat different circumstances which bring them before me, the common element is that both teach a course in which nursing students perform practical work at a third party workplace. As a result, the teacher must occasionally travel by car to those sites. Among other things, the teachers assert that this travel substantially increases their workload. The issue is whether those circumstances (and others which are more fully described below) are "atypical" as contemplated under Article 11.01G2 of the collective agreement, and whether in consequence of such a finding, the two teachers are entitled to receive attribution for additional hours on their Fall of 2011 Standard Workload Form (SWF). The relevant Article in the collective agreement reads: Where there are atypical circumstances affecting the workload of a teacher or group of teachers which are not adequately reflected in Article 11, Workload, additional hours shall be attributed, following discussion between each teacher individually and the supervisor, on an hour for hour basis. The Grievors each claim, among other things, hour for hour the extra time associated with traveling to their students' work assignments. I will consider each of the Grievors' claims in order. Marian Smith The College's nursing program is offered in partnership with Ryerson University, Centennial College and George Brown College. Centennial students complete their first two years at Centennial and the final two years at Ryerson. Faculty from both the College and university teach the courses. As a result there is interaction between Ryerson and the College. During the relevant period Prof. Smith was required to travel to Ryerson once per week for meetings. Prof. Smith says it usually took one hour to drive to Ryerson and one and one half hours to drive home. For the 2011 fall semester which is at issue Prof. Smith taught two courses: PNUR103 (reporting to Stephen Jacobs) and NSE032 (reporting to Ellen Bull). PNUR103 - Practical Nursing Professional Growth 1 is a classroom course. Prof. Smith claims 6.39 hours per week for 15 weeks for PNUR103 and 6.5 hours per week for 15 weeks for NCE032. With respect to PNUR103 Prof. Smith asserts that there were a number of issues which made the course atypical that term. There were a number of new part time teachers. Although, as team lead, Prof. Smith was assigned one additional hour per week that amount of time was not sufficient to deal with the issues she faced. Moreover, for the first four weeks of the course the College was short two teachers which affected Ms. Smith's workload. To make matters worse, on a couple of occasions new teachers committed to teaching the course, were prepared by Ms. Smith and then changed their mind. The fallout was that there was a difficult set of exams because Prof. Smith had to prepare two versions of each exam and a number of versions of the midterm exams. NSE 32 (Nursing Practice) is a course which involves a community nursing placement at a third party employer such as a nursing home, hospital or shelter. The nursing practice course uses the preceptor model. A preceptor is like a mentor. If, for example, the student is placed in a shelter for the 4 term, the head of the shelter is the student's preceptor. Prof. Smith was required to stay in contact with both the student and the preceptor. The issues with respect to NCE032 were both travel related and evaluation related. At one time the placements were usually located in the Scarborough area, where the College's campus is located. However, more recently there has been a shortage of placements and students must be placed more far a field. In addition, the College's placement office has endeavoured to find placements where the students live, which may mean the placement is quite a long distance away. The College pays for the teachers' mileage and parking expenses which suggests the travel is part of work. Prof. Smith is required to and has a meeting with the student and the preceptor at least one time per semester and more often if there are specific issues which need to be addressed. In the fall session at issue Prof. Smith went out to visit a placement 13 times. As noted, she also drove to Ryerson weekly. This means that she is in her car a reasonably significant amount of time. I note that the College argued that the teacher could do the meeting by Skype. While this is true, it is obviously a less desirable way of conducting the meeting and if the College wishes its teachers to meet in this way it ought to require it. Prof. Smith also asserts that the course was atypical in the fall semester because at the start of the semester there were issues regarding the number of students that Prof. Smith taught who required special attention (3 of 20 had mental health issues). There was also an issue with students being admitted late and issues surrounding students who had failed the previous year returning to redo the course. She also had difficulty in evaluation (which she PI '1 Said Irequired LO WOLK. LIUUlb vvGC/C. W4S dbbigliCU I .4 hours per week on her SWF) and felt she was required to respond at all hours to meet students' needs by email and otherwise and that the communication needs of students were otherwise quite intensive. Finally, in contrast to other 5 years not all of the preceptors were nurses which increased her responsibility on a practical level. These issues greatly increased her workload and reflect the amounts she claims before me. The College notes that NSE-032 is a year long course. Therefore it is not atypical to have students who commence the course at the end of the second week. Over the year the teacher loses students who drop out but does not gain students after the second week or so. The preparation and evaluation time on the SWF is not reduced as a result of students dropping the course. The College recognized there was an issue with Ms. Smith's workload as a result of the some of the issues she faced and reopened her SWF as a result to give her more time. Further, the College says, she has fewer students to teach in recognition of her role as lead. In addition while her evaluation time was high in NSE32, her preparation time was low which provided an offset. The fact that her preparation time was low was acknowledged by Prof. Smith. The College argues that otherwise the circumstances for these courses are not atypical. The preceptor model is not new and is in the nature of the program. Debbie Cameron In the Fall semester Prof. Cameron taught the classroom course NSE011 Nursing Theory 1: Theoretical Foundation of Nursing and, like Prof. Smith also taught NSE 032. T ike ircrof iprof ri" ‘..rneron IUUUU tal. I, up vi Luc"" i course was problematic. The Ryerson Central Placement office was not able to immediately confirm all placements and she had to deal with a number of concerned students. The course also had a higher than normal number of 6 students and a number of students who were returning. Returning students had passed the practical portion of the course the year before but had failed the theoretical aspect and were therefore required to repeat the whole course. Some students were also admitted as late as the second week of the course which, according to Prof. Cameron, had never occurred before. Prof. Cameron noted that she was the lead on NSE011 and that in this role she assisted two part time teachers who also taught the course. Even though they had taught the course before, they still required her support. Prof. Cameron also says that a new textbook was introduced so she was required to spend time adjusting her materials and reviewing the new book. The College notes that the new text was introduced prior to the summer and she had time in May and June to make the appropriate adjustments to her materials. Prof. Cameron also experienced that the student placements were farther away than normal and they required meeting times that were in non traditional hours (2pm-9pm). In one case the student's placement was in Mississauga which meant traveling 210km there and back-more than two and a half hours of driving time. Prof Cameron claims 2-3 hours overtime per week as compensation for excessive travel time and other work which she found onerous and atypical of the normal workload. The College notes that Prof. Cameron's SWF was reopened as a result of her workload and she was not required to work on a special development project that had been assigned to her. Furthermore, both teachers are, as part of programs, SWFed for 15 weeks when the amount of actual class time is only 14 weeks. So in a sense there is a "free" week. 7 Decision The Standard Workload Formula provisions which have been negotiated by the parties into the collective agreement are an imperfect way of "estimating" the amount of work that a particular teacher will go through in teaching a class.