Important: KFA Advice Regarding the Remote Work Agreement

Dear Kwantlen Faculty Association Members,

Recently, the Employer circulated an email indicating that an approved Remote Work Agreement is required in order for faculty to access the small equipment fund. For your reference, that email is included in italics below.

We have consulted with our legal advisors at FPSE, and we have several concerns with the Remote Work Agreement. We have raised our concerns with the Employer, and we are awaiting a response.

It appears that in asking faculty to sign this agreement, the Employer is seeking to assign the Employer’s financial and legal responsibilities to individual faculty members. We believe individual members should not be required to enter into such an agreement. If necessary, the Union and the Employer could negotiate a memorandum of understanding, instead.

We advise you not to sign the Remote Work Agreement. We believe you are free to refuse to sign it without consequences. The Union’s position is that requiring an employee to sign the Remote Work Agreement as a condition to work remotely is not legal. However, if you decide to sign the Agreement, we advise you write below your signature “I am signing under protest and my agreement to the imposed conditions is without prejudice or precedent to any position that the Union may take on my behalf individually or collectively.”

If you have already signed the Remote Work Agreement, we advise that you contact the administrator to whom you submitted the form and notify them that “I signed under protest and my agreement to the imposed conditions is without prejudice or precedent to any position that the Union may take on my behalf individually or collectively.”

If you decide not to sign and you face any consequences such as being denied equipment required to do your job, please let us know.

In solidarity,

Gillian Dearle

President, Kwantlen Faculty Association

For your reference, the email from the Employer regarding the Remote Work Agreement is copied below:

Sent on behalf of Laurie Clancy, Associate Vice President, Human Resources

As you may have seen, a Communicator message regarding a small equipment fund for employees was released on August 17th.   The purpose of the fund is to allow employees, who continue to work from home under an approved remote working agreement, an opportunity to purchase small equipment needed to support them to work from home.  This includes reimbursement for small hardware purchases (such as monitors, printers, mouse, keyboard, desk chairs, desks, etc.).

In order to be eligible for the fund, you must:

–       Complete KPU related work (teaching or accountable time) from home;

–       Have an approved remote working agreement (see below); and,

–       Are a current employee at KPU as of July 19th, 2021

The Remote Work Agreement can be found on SharePoint here.  This satisfies the “approved remote working agreement” eligibility requirement.  In addition, the agreement outlines the key health and safety requirements for working from home in accordance with WorkSafe BC legislation.  Health and safety roles, rights, and responsibilities are just as applicable to remote employees as they are to those working in the physical workplace. 

In order to help keep track of submitted agreements, please include arts.funding@kpu.ca in the “Proxy Supervisor” field.  They will receive an email notification that states that you have submitted an agreement and the date/time the agreement was submitted.  The list of completed Remote Work Agreements will be cross referenced when approving expense reports for the small equipment fund.

For more information, please review the small equipment fund frequently asked questions.