Information for Supervisors / Administrators of CUPE Unit 1 Staff – Teaching Assistants
Employees who are members of the CUPE Local 3906 Unit 1 bargaining unit, which includes Teaching Assistants, demonstrators, tutors and super tutors, markers, and research assistants who receive a research assistantship in lieu of a teaching assistantship (“Teaching Assistants”), may be required to support their employment supervisor to move from in-person classes and in-person exams to alternative methods of ensuring successful course delivery to students.
Regular Payroll
It has been confirmed that all Teaching Assistants will be paid for the hours they were assigned to work for the Winter 2020 term, according to the existing bi-weekly payroll schedule. These hours are pre-programmed in Mosaic and otherwise require no action on your part to continue payment.
Re-distribution of Hours of Work / Teaching Assistant Duties
Recognizing the need for flexible and nimble procedures relating to the redistribution of hours in these exceptional circumstances, typical processes relating to Hours of Work Form adjustments have been waived during this time.
As a result, where only duties are changing (and the total hours of work are not changing) there is no tracking that is required in this circumstance. Payroll will continue to flow in accordance with the University bi-weekly payroll schedule.
We encourage Supervisors and Administrators to engage in open discussion with Teaching Assistants about work assignments.
Additional Hours of Work
There is agreement where additional hours of work are assigned, Teaching Assistants will be appropriately compensated.
Please use the new template spreadsheet to submit additional hours of work to the HR Service Centre for payment (and refer to the How to Guide as needed). Please record all additional hours and then submit the spreadsheet for processing as a one-time payment aligned with the University bi-weekly payroll schedule. Please email the completed spreadsheet to hr.mcmaster@mcmaster.ca and use the subject line “CUPE TA additional hours payment”.
The HR Service Centre continues to be focused on ensuring that all payroll submissions and processing remain as seamless as possible. Please refer to the payroll cutoff schedule for HR transaction submission deadlines. There are no changes to the payroll processing schedule at this time, however, we will continue to monitor in alignment with contingency planning updates. For all additional hours of work submissions received by Monday April 13, 2020, the target will be to ensure the payments are processed by the final pay period of the term, which is the pay deposit on April 24, 2020.
If a Teaching Assistant is unable to complete additional hours of work, please consider other available resources (for example, other Teaching Assistants) to address redistribution of duties.
Additional Training
If you would like your Teaching Assistant to use teaching and resource tools for which they need training or support, please arrange for appropriate instruction. Additional support is available at:
- https://cto.mcmaster.ca/it-updates/it-continuity-tools-services/
- https://mi.mcmaster.ca/instructional-continuity/
Time spent receiving instruction will be included as compensable hours of work. If this can be completed through redistribution of remaining hours, no further action is required on your part. If time required will be “Additional Hours of Work”, please see relevant section above for tracking and compensation.
Collective Agreements & Union Relations, COVID-19, Payroll Administration, Things to Know, TMG