The University of Toronto Faculty Association makes two proposals to amend the Workload Policy and Procedures (the “WLPP”) and two proposals to amend the aspects of the Academic Administrative Procedures Manual (the “AAPM”) relating to Progress Through the Ranks (the “PTR Policy”).1 These proposals, set out below, are driven by the fact that the WLPP and PTR Policy, in their current form, are inadequate to address the significant and concrete problems of over-work and inequitable distribution of work affecting UTFA members. Specifically:
- UTFA members have for many years expressed that their workload is “crushing”. This experience of over-work has not improved since the introduction of the WLPP, as is apparent from surveys by the Administration and UTFA before and since the WLPP’s introduction. It is evident that the WLPP does not provide the tools UTFA and its members need to address excessive and inequitable workload, including clear workload norms.
- The experience of over-work—in particular as a result of disproportionately higher teaching and service obligations—and the absence of clear workload norms disadvantages UTFA members who identify as women or as racialized vis a vis their male and non-racialized colleagues.
- The experience of over-work and the absence of clear workload norms also particularly disadvantages faculty members outside of the tenure stream, including in the Teaching Stream, and those faculty members with part-time contractually limited term appointments. The further away a faculty member’s appointment is from the male-dominated tenure stream norm of “40/40/20”, the more unclear their expected distribution of effort and the more subject they become to excessive teaching and service workloads.
Read the full interest arbitration brief here (PDF)