Rationale for the FSA Special Resolution, January 2015
Update (22 Jan 2015): This resolution was voted on and accepted by the FSA membership at the Jan 21st GM.
The Faculty and Staff Association’s 1400 members have a range of employment relationships with BCIT. To reflect those differing interests, the FSA has three categories of membership: Regular, Associate, and Ancillary Members.
A Regular Member is a person who is employed in a regular or temporary position as defined by the collective agreement. Note that the collective agreement distinguishes temporary employees from persons on Part Time Studies (PTS) contracts.
An Ancillary Member who is a person employed as a Marker or Student Employee as defined by the collective agreement and who does not have another position in the bargaining unit. The FSA represents these members however their role in the functioning of the union is limited.
An Associate Member is a person employed as a PTS Instructor or Laboratory Assistant, on a PTS Administration contract, or on a Curriculum Development contract and who does not have a regular or temporary position in the bargaining unit. Under our by-laws, PTS members are Associate Members. Under the collective agreement, these positions are described as auxiliary employment contracts. The change proposed to our by-laws at the January 2015 general meeting relates to these Associate Members.
Even though they are treated as ‘auxiliary’ under the collective agreement, they comprise a quarter of the FSA membership. Currently we only have one seat on our Board of Directors available to Associate Members and the FSA executive would like to extend this to two seats. Regular Members would still be assured eight seats on the board. If no Associate Member runs for one or both of those seats designated for them, Regular Members would be able to fill those seats as well.
Auxiliary employees at BCIT have little to no benefits, little job security, are paid poorly, and have little to no say in the day to day business of BCIT. As BCIT’s budget tightens, the FSA has seen a trend toward Auxiliary contracts as way to get business cheaply.
We need to hear more from these members and do our best to meet their needs and support them. One way of doing this is to make sure we create space for them at the FSA Board of Directors. The proposed by-law change is part of our efforts to better represent this large group of members.
Relationship: BCIT Contract Type & FSA Membership Categories
Additional Resources: BCIT-FSA Collective Agreement Articles 4 & 15
