Fair Employment Week Message 2017

Fair Employment Week Message 2017

From the FSA Caucus on Part-Time Studies (COPTS)

The FSA is concerned that many instructors at Canada’s post-secondary institutions, including BCIT, are trapped in precarious, short-term contract work, and the number seems to be growing. Contract work has quietly gone from an interim stepping stone to a career-long experience. As a result, many contract academic staff (or PTS instructors, as they are known at BCIT) experience chronic employment insecurity, poorer benefits or no benefits, and earn inadequate wages. And the deleterious effects go far beyond the faculty.

Every year, thousands of Canadian post-secondary educators are denied the opportunity to participate in (and be paid for) all aspects of academic work, including research and participation in departmental and institutional processes along with their teaching. This has serious implications – not only for contract academic staff – but for their students, permanent faculty colleagues, and the integrity of post-secondary institutions.

Together, BCIT and the FSA can change this situation. We can improve the employment conditions of contract academic staff and limit the inappropriate and undue use of auxiliary contracts.

In support of the FSA’s vision of “Outstanding careers through outstanding employment conditions,” it is time for BCIT to act with us to do more for our members who work in Part-Time Studies. It is time for significant changes that will show these members that their work and contributions are equally valued. It is time that PTS instructors’ dedication to BCIT and quality education is recognized. And it is time for the “second-class” treatment of PTS instructional work to end.

The FSA is committed to working to protect all our members from the two-tiered treatment of faculty and the erosion and “casualization” of our core bargaining unit work. BCIT should act with us to offer fair working conditions for all and guarantee a quality educational experience
for every student.

The FSA expresses our support to those who stand for the fair treatment of all academic staff regardless of employment status. All educators should receive fair compensation for teaching, research, and service.

We can do better. Make it fair.

Find out more about Fair Employment Week & the FSA.