COVID-19
CUPE National has put forward for members leading practices to prevent workplace exposure to the virus which causes COVID-19. Sector specific for: post secondary education.
The Joint Occupational Health & Safety Committee (JOHS) has been working during the closure to ensure the health and safety of essential workers and now the employees who are on campus to facilitate experiential learning (kitchens, labs, shops). Return to Work (RTW) plans should be prepared for each department and JOHS and front line workers must be involved in the creation and implementation. RTW plans will be posted online and hard copies accessible to all workers in the Department. Should you have any issues, on campus or remotely please contact a member of JOHS.
Teleworking (Working Remotely) and Remote Working
Many of you continue to work remotely as per the March 18, 2020 VCC Temporary Remote Working Guidelines. In the CUPE Collective Agreement (CA) (B-17) is language on Teleworking (Working Remotely). Should you want to continue with Telework and avail yourself to the Telework provisions in the CA (e.g. 30 days notice of Telework cancellation instead of the 1 day notice of termination of Remote Working) please create a Telework proposal and submit for approval (Eligibility and Selection Criteria B-17.4)
B-17 Teleworking Eligibility and Selection Criteria
Bargaining
Bargaining restarted in April 2020. The Employer and the Union have been bargaining remotely almost every week since then. There isn’t much we can say about bargaining except that COVID-19 has certainly made the process more protracted. We continue to work with the Employer in order to bring bargaining to a conclusion.