JOB SECURITY
There are two main elements to job security: permanence and hiring priority (see ‘How is work assigned?’).
Permanence
When a teacher becomes permanent in a discipline, they automatically have hiring priority for a workload in that discipline. Permanence comes with a level of job security in that if there is insufficient work for a permanent teacher, they have some salary protection.
In order to become permanent, a teacher needs to occupy a poste (see ‘How do I become full time?’). The number of full-time postes available in a discipline is based on the needs of the discipline, which is dependent on the number of students enrolled. Full-time postes are assigned to teachers based on the ‘hiring priority’).
Permanence differs from university tenure. Permanence is open to all teachers as staffing expands and as permanent teachers leave or retire; it is not merit-based.
Seniority
Your seniority is based on the number of full-time years you’ve been credited with having worked at the College. Note that this is not necessarily the same as the number of years you have taught at the College. Full-time teachers accrue +1.0 seniority for the year.
For a part-time teacher, seniority accrues in proportion to the workload assigned, which corresponds to the ETC indicated on your contract (see ‘Understanding ETC and CI’), but cannot exceed +0.50 per semester. Substitution work does not generate seniority (see Substitutions and Replacements below).
For hourly-paid teachers, seniority accrues at a rate of 1/450th for every hour taught, except during short-term substitutions. Therefore, an hourly-paid teacher – or a Regular sector teacher who also teaches hourly-paid courses – may accrue more than +0.50 seniority in a semester.
The maximum seniority gain for any teacher during a given academic year is +1.0.
Seniority continues to accumulate during parental leaves and medical leaves (including for individual sick days). In these instances, you accrue the seniority associated with the contract for which you would have had priority had you not been on a leave.
On October 15th, the College publishes a seniority list based on the seniority accrued during the previous academic year (Fall-Winter-Summer). This list is used until October 15th of the following year. Seniority is not transferable from one college to another.
Substitutions and replacements
Substitution and Replacement contracts are treated differently in terms of hiring priority and seniority.
Substitution generally refers to any ad-hoc substitutions (e.g. teaching an individual class or two for another teacher who is absent). However, it can also refer to the first days of a replacement in situations where the College is awaiting confirmation of the duration of the absence.
Substitution work is hourly-paid and does not generate seniority; however, it can contribute to establishing a teacher’s full-time status (and thus priority for additional work) and to securing a full-time salary (see ‘Pathways to a full-time annual contract). The distribution of substitution work does not have to follow hiring priority; some departments have internal policies about the distribution of substitution work, while others use a “first-come, first-served” approach.
Replacement contracts are assigned following the priority list and generate seniority, as with any part-time day contract. An absence is deemed to be a replacement contract in instances when the College can confirm that the absence will last longer than 10 days, (e.g. a parental leave or a longer medical absence). A part-time teacher has the right to apply their priority on any work (including replacement contracts) which may arise during the academic year, up to the equivalent of a 1 ETC workload (see clause 5-4.16 a). However, the College is not obligated to assign any additional work that would generate a semester CI in excess of 55.