Layoff and Recall of Regular Faculty
By: KFA Table Officers
We understand that layoff is not on most faculty members’ list of favourite subjects. At the same time, we all recognize it is important to know our rights and know the facts on this uncomfortable and complex topic. The KFA’s role is to support faculty throughout all layoff procedures, and prevention and/or mitigation of layoffs is our main priority during that process.
This article explains procedures for layoff and recall of regular faculty at KPU. The article begins with details about the Collective Agreement provisions in Article 7 and ends with details about layoff mitigation strategies the Employer may use in advance of commencing the layoff process.
It is important to understand that receiving a layoff notice does not necessarily result in an actual layoff, and when a layoff does occur, it does not necessarily result in permanent job loss.
Please note: this article does not address layoff or work reduction for non-regular faculty. It is a feature of faculty classifications that work reductions affect non-regular faculty first before they affect regular faculty. Most work reductions for non-regular faculty happen by simply not renewing contracts. Formal layoff provisions for NR2 faculty members are somewhat different and limited and can be found under Article 8: Layoff and Recall – Non-Regular Type 2 Faculty. If you have questions about the layoff process for NR2 contracts, please reach out to the KFA.
Layoff is a Process, Not a Single Event
A quick summary of events that may occur in the layoff process:
- Reasons for potential for layoff presented by the Employer to the KFA
- Consultation between KFA and administration and preliminary mitigation efforts
- 5-month layoff notice(s) issued to individual faculty members where layoff is still deemed necessary by the Employer
- Mitigation efforts
- Layoff
- Severance pay
- Recall period of 2 years
- Potential recall and potential repayment of severance
In the next section, we will describe the events that occur in the layoff process and reference the relevant articles in the Collective Agreement. These processes are described under Article 7: Layoff and Recall – Regular Faculty.
Reasons for Layoff Presented by the Employer to the KFA
Article 7.01 in the Collective Agreement states: “The Employer may lay off regular faculty due to technological change; shortage of operating funds; elimination or reduction of programs or courses or services; decline in enrolment; external decision or recommendation; or changing demand for Employer services.” In simpler terms, this means that layoffs can occur if there are budget cuts due to funding shortfalls, changes in the demand for courses, or shifts in how the university operates.
Employer Notice and Union Negotiation
Article 7.01 (a) speaks to the requirement of the Employer to take all reasonable measures to reduce job loss, including informing and consulting with the Union as soon as any of the above listed events occur. The Employer must fully disclose to the Union the reasons for potential layoffs and must give the Union 10 days to reply and make proposals regarding those stated reasons. Through this negotiation, job loss may be averted.
5-Month Layoff Notice
If the above Employer and Union negotiation does not avert potential job loss, the Employer will serve a written layoff notice to the affected faculty members and to the Union (7.03). The notice period is 5 months, and during this time, notified faculty remain employed by the university in their usual positions. During the notice period, the Employer, the faculty member, and the Union explore various forms of mitigation as described later in this article.
Layoff Order
Faculty members are served notice of layoff in order of least FTE to most FTE (7.02) within the area(s) affected.
“FTE” stands for “full-time equivalent,” which is how service is tabulated at KPU. The details of how this is calculated are in Article 1.05(i). Your FTE is expressed as a number, and you can find your own FTE service number in the Online Self Service (OSS). For example, 1.0 FTE stands for one full year of service at 100%. In most areas of the university, 1.0 FTE typically corresponds to teaching eight 3-credit sections. This figure is pro-rated for part-time service. For instance, a faculty member who has worked three years and taught eight sections in each year has an FTE of 3.0; a faculty member who has worked three years and taught four sections in each year has an FTE of 1.5. Regular and non-regular work counts towards total accumulated FTE. FTE is accumulated irrespective of non-regular or regular status; however, a gap in employment longer than 18 months restarts the FTE count to zero. Teaching non-bargaining unit courses in Continuing & Professional Studies (CPS) does not count for FTE.
If you have concerns about layoff order, the Union recommends that you inquire and verify with HR your FTE and your FTE order within your area, referred to in the Collective Agreement as “discipline/program.” If you think there is an error, please contact the KFA.
Impact of Qualifications on Layoff Order
We should note that FTE order is not the only criteria for determining layoff order. Article 7.02 (b) (i-ii) describes how qualifications impact the order of layoff notice. If a faculty member has been identified for layoff on the basis of FTE, but the remaining faculty are not qualified to perform the job duties that remain in the area, the process of identifying the faculty member with the next lowest FTE will continue.
The Union recommends that you verify the list of courses you are qualified to teach with your dean’s office. You are qualified for all courses that you were qualified to teach at the time of hiring or at any point thereafter. If you believe the list the dean’s office gives you is incorrect, you should request a correction. If you encounter problems in this process, please contact the KFA. (Note: the list that should be kept by deans’ offices is sometimes referred to as the “QFL” or qualified faculty list, and sometimes it is referred to as the “QTT” or qualified to teach list. These are the same thing when referring to regular faculty.)
Faculty members who have transferred from one discipline to another, who are cross-appointed, or who are qualified in multiple disciplines/areas, may have access to additional mitigation strategies, so it can be helpful if your dean’s office(s) are regularly reminded of your qualifications in multiple disciplines/areas and are kept up to date in times when faculty are facing potential layoffs.
Part-time Regular Faculty Members and Layoff
For part-time regular faculty members who have been working above their regularization percentage (additional work contracts), please note that offering work *only* at the percentage of regularization does not constitute layoff.
Part-time regular faculty members are entitled to first right of access to additional work that is available in their area; however, if additional work is unavailable as a result of general work reductions in the area, then the member will not be assigned work above their regularization percentage. They will not qualify for severance pay nor have recall rights to additional work above their regularization percentage. However, they will still continue to have first right to additional work above their regularization percentage should it become available.
If you have been working above your regularization percentage over the past three years, please contact the KFA as you may be entitled to a regularization percentage increase. Work reductions in future do not impact your entitlement to a regularization percentage increase now.
Layoff Mitigation under Article 7
Once any faculty members receive written notice of layoff, mitigation strategies are explored by the Employer. These are detailed under Article 7.05, 7.06, 7.09, and under the lists in 7.10 (c) and (d). Article 22.05 is also related to mitigation.
1. Alternative Work
A faculty member who receives a layoff notice will meet with their dean/administrator and discuss alternative work assignments for which the member may be qualified. This is one reason to ensure your vetted courses are updated and for administrators to be made aware of cross appointments. The dean/administrator will determine if the faculty member can be reassigned to an alternate position. If the Dean is unable to determine if a faculty member is qualified for alternate work in another department, then the search committee of that department will vet the faculty member. This process may require a current CV and an interview with the Search Committee.
If the faculty member or KFA disagrees with a dean/administrator’s determination of suitability for alternate work, then this determination is sent to the Labour Management Relations Committee (LMRC) for resolution. Failing satisfactory resolution at LMRC, a grievance is possible (7.02).
2. Partial Layoff
In some situations, faculty may be issued partial layoff notices. If the faculty member works less than their regularized workload (a partial layoff), then they become a part-time regular faculty member whose compensation and benefits are adjusted to their part-time workload. Under a partial layoff, the faculty member has a right of first refusal of available work, including non-regular work, and receives a partial severance. The partial severance can be used to top up salary, benefits, and/or pension for a period of two years.
3. Menu of Labour Adjustment Strategies
For a period of 14 days, the LMRC, via emails from the Dean’s Office, will canvas faculty in the areas affected by layoff (7.10 a) and provide solutions to minimize job loss.
Voluntary faculty solutions may include partial leave, job sharing, transfers to other areas, unpaid leaves of absence, workload averaging, reducing workload by combining with pension, secondment, and trial retirement. If you choose to consider a voluntary solution and are uncertain what it means, please consult the KFA.
Under 7.10 (d), the Employer also considers discretionary mitigation efforts which can include paid leaves of absence, severance of up to 12 months to faculty who were not identified for layoff, retirement incentives, workload averaging, purchasing past pensionable service for a retiring employee, retraining, and continuation of benefits. Mitigation efforts are optional on the part of the Employer and are subject to funding.
4. Retirement Incentive
Article 22.05 describes how the Employer can offset layoffs by offering retirement incentives to regular faculty who are at least 55 years old, have a minimum of 10 years of FTE service, are at the maximum step of the salary scale, and who will resign for the purposes of retirement. This mitigates layoffs by allowing someone with higher FTE service to retire in place of someone with less FTE being issued a layoff notice. This is optional on the part of the Employer as well as on the part of members who might qualify for the incentive. Faculty who accept an early retirement offer do not retain any FTE, but they may be added to the QFL and retain their access to email and access to non-regular work as NR1 faculty.
5. Registry of Laid Off Employees
Letter of Understanding #7 in the Collective Agreement provides details about the entitlements of laid off faculty to available positions listed in the Registry. These entitlements may include access to interviews, training/orientation, benefits, seniority retention and so on.
Severance
After alternative work assignment possibilities and other forms of mitigation have been exhausted, a faculty member may be laid off. Article 7.08 states that they will “receive one month’s severance pay for every full year of FTE service to a maximum of ten (10) months’ severance pay.”
If a person is recalled to a regular position, then the severance pay received must be gradually repaid at the rate of one month severance pay per year of employment after recall. If a person is laid off and recalled, then laid off later, the severance pay received is adjusted according to a formula found in Article 7.08.
Recall
Article 7.11 (a) explains that faculty members who have been laid off have a right to be recalled back into a regular position for work that becomes available, and for which they are qualified, for two years from the date of their layoff. Offers of re-appointment are made in the reverse order of layoffs. If faculty members are not recalled within two years, their right to reappointment at KPU ends.
It’s important to note here that even if a person’s recall period has ended, the person can request to be retained on the qualified faculty list to be able to access non-regular work that might become available after the recall period. However, it should also be noted that a laid off faculty member does not have a right to this work after the two-year period has ended. All laid off faculty should check Taleo regularly and apply for any open positions.
Faculty members who have been laid off are responsible for keeping Human Resources informed of their up-to-date contact information. Make sure HR has your current personal email address, mailing address, and phone number. Be sure you check your email regularly, as the Employer will initially contact you via email.
A faculty member who is recalled will have 5 business days to respond to the initial recall email sent by the Employer. If a recalled faculty member decides to not accept re-appointment, they will “lose all rights to re-appointment under Article 7.11.”
Layoff Mitigation in Advance of Issuing Written Layoff Notices
The Employer may change faculty’s schedules in order to avoid issuing layoff notices. If student enrollment numbers are low, classes may be cancelled. If your class is cancelled, you may be asked to teach during your non-teaching semester to make up the missing section(s). Depending on the context, it may be in your best interest to accept this schedule change rather than refusing work as the refusal of work may lead to a workload reduction. This workload reduction would happen outside of the provisions and protections under Article 7, meaning that you would not receive severance and other rights under the layoff process. You would simply lose that workload, at least for that year, and then most likely be issued an overpayment notice because your annualized workload will have declined. If you are unsure about accepting scheduling changes, please contact the KFA.
It is important to remember that there is no seniority at KPU for scheduling courses. As long as the Employer has provided your workload percentage during your work year (12-month period), then they have fulfilled their contractual obligations to you. This means that you could be asked to teach in all three semesters in a number of configurations. For example, if you usually teach a 100% workload of 3-credit courses as 4/4/0, you could be asked to teach 4/0/4 or 2/2/4 or 0/4/4 or 4/3/1 and so on. Anyone can be asked to change their teaching semester based on operational needs, and a faculty member’s FTE amount need not be considered by the Employer. In the same way, the dean/administrator may fulfil their obligation to provide workload via a different course (for which you are qualified) and/or via a different mode (in person, hybrid, or online). If you have questions about being asked to teach in all three semesters, please contact the KFA.
Role of Deans, Associate Deans, and Chairs in the Layoff Process
Deans and associate deans are responsible for communicating to faculty about layoffs and layoff mitigation. Chairs are faculty peers, and they do not have supervisory or managerial responsibilities. That being said, chairs often perform scheduling tasks as part of their normal chair duties, so there is a real risk for chairs to be asked by their deans’ offices to undertake layoff mitigation tasks that should rightly be performed by deans and associate deans.
If you are a chair and you are being asked to communicate with a faculty member regarding a change to their schedule so that they must teach during their non-teaching semester, please contact the KFA. Chairs should not be required to have these conversations with faculty about their schedules. This is the role of the associate dean or dean since moving sections around in this way is considered a layoff mitigation strategy, and chairs are not responsible for layoff mitigation. Only supervisors (deans, associate deans, or directors) can engage faculty in these types of scheduling conversations.
If you have been asked to teach during your non-teaching semester by your chair, please contact the KFA. The KFA will provide support to all chairs so that they do not feel pressured by their deans to engage in layoff mitigation.
Final Thoughts
Being issued a layoff notice may provoke fears and anxieties, but remember that you have rights and options. Our rights around layoff, described in this communication, are a key way that our regularization rights are upheld and are key to the KFA being able to defend regularization. The KFA is dedicated to ensuring those rights are upheld and that you are supported.
If you have any questions or concerns about layoffs, or if you notice any potential breaches of the procedures described in our Collective Agreement or in this article, please contact the KFA. We are here to answer your questions and provide support.