Yes! The Collective Agreement establishes your employment rights such as: the rates of pay, benefit eligibility, a grievance process, and (for PTS instructors) the right to normally be rehired. Like all FSA members, PTS/Auxiliary Employees have rights and responsibilities in their respective roles. How these are applied in your specific context can be challenging to outline in specific detail, but PTS/Auxiliary Employees can always obtain more information by contacting the FSA directly.

Article 5.2.5.2.8 gives the first right to teach a course to the individual who authored the course if they were not being paid to do so by BCIT. Article 7.4 ensures that an employee who ‘creates, develops, acquires or introduces’ course materials retains ownership over them. When BCIT pays someone to author a course, BCIT might claim ownership over the materials. In those cases, BCIT may also deny the creator the right to use the materials at other institutions or online.

Instructors who plan to develop and introduce a new course, whether on their own or under contract with BCIT, first should obtain a written understanding with the Associate Dean that acknowledges that the course, and all of its associated materials, will belong exclusively to the author. Course authors should expect adequate compensation for any rights over course materials claimed by BCIT. When being paid to develop a course, authors should also insist
that the agreement clearly sets out any rights that they retain over the materials.

Contact the FSA if you have any questions about the ownership of course materials. Note also that the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), of which the FSA is a member, provides information on copyright on their website. They are currently lobbying Parliament for changes to the Copyright Act on behalf of all post-secondary educators.

While there is no specific right pertaining to this, PTS Coordinators/Program Heads can create an auxiliary (PTS) contract to pay part-time studies staff or temps who are between contracts to attend department meetings at the “PTS Admin” rate (around $45/hour). While salaried staff have the benefit of being paid to attend meetings, why should non-salaried members of your department not share the same privilege? This will build morale, encourage department collegiality, and promote big picture thinking about how all staff contribute to teaching excellence and the welfare of the department.

Snow days or other class cancellations due to campus closures are inconvenient for all members but can be particularly problematic for members teaching PTS (Part-Time Studies) courses.

Must you schedule an in-person make-up class?

While scheduling an in-person make-up class may seem like the most obvious solution, this “solution” may cause other problems. If you add a class to the end of the term, PTS students or instructors may have other commitments in place already, preventing them from  attending. Making up a class on a stat holiday or on another day is also problematic for the same reason (not to mention that BCIT employees should not work on a stat!).

Other ways to make up missed time

Providing students with a “take-home class” – where they complete specific readings, submit exercises, participate in peer reviews, and will be counted “absent” for a class if they don’t – is a great alternative. Some instructors make small but critical revisions to the overall  course schedule such as combining two topics or adding an extra reading/exercise to each class. If the “snow day” occurred on a scheduled test day, the test can be moved to another day in the existing schedule, and one of the above methods used to make up the “bumped” class.

For an unavoidable class cancellation like a snow day; a little creative thinking will ensure the material is suitably made up.

There is no denying that lack of access to PD funds for members in Part-Time Studies (PTS) is very frustrating and generally perceived as unfair. This issue is one that the FSA continues to press with the employer. In the meantime, departments should bring their PTS members’ attention to the existing “free” training opportunities that do exist for them. These include:

• Annual BCIT PD days and other special events
• The 2-week flex delivery Fostering Learning Online course offered by the Learning and Teaching Centre (LTC)
• The 10-week Blended Learning Seminar offered by the LTC
• Various Instructional Skills Workshops and Educational Technology Workshops offered by the LTC
• Access to the Instructional Enhancement grants which can be used for certain eligible PD expenses
• Access to the Learning and Teaching Framework grants which can be used for certain eligible PD expenses
• Tuition reimbursement for courses taken in the Provincial Instructor Diploma Program

In addition, some Departments can help members in PTS with fee waivers for taking BCIT PTS courses that have available seats.

After reviewing the FSA Part-Time Studies Guide (PDF), we suggest that you check out the following additional resources which you may find useful:

• BCIT provides a number of resources for employees, including an instructor handbook, information on PTS benefits, and other PTS resource information, via their website and a group on the BCIT intranet The Loop (Login access required).
• We encourage all our members who work in PTS, particularly those who might be on campuses during evenings and weekends, to familiarize themselves with the BCIT emergency procedure (PDF) for their classroom location.

Have suggestions for other useful information to go on this page? Contact us and give us your feedback!

All BCIT technology program “Part-Time Studies (PTS) employees”, or Auxiliary Employees (as they are called in the Collective Agreement), with the following types of contracts are FSA members and are covered by the BCIT-FSA Collective Agreement:

• Instructor
• Lab Assistant
• Marker
• Curriculum Development
• PTS Administration

If you are a PTS/Auxiliary Employee and a member of the FSA please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

PTS/Auxiliary employees are eligible as members to:

• Participate as members in FSA meetings, activities and committees,
• Vote in FSA elections and contract ratification processes, and
• Run for election for one of the Director – Associate Members positions on the FSA Board of Directors.

Click on the photo!

Fair Employment Week is an annual campaign led by CAUT to bring awareness to the issues facing post-secondary employees whose work is precarious in nature. To find out how the FSA celebrates please visit our FEW page.