Union argued 10-day vacation policy was arbitrary
An Alberta professor felt it was his duty to respond to student emails during his vacation, even though it was the policy at Athabasca University for him to wait until he returned to active duty.
Robert Barnetson worked in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the distance learning post-secondary institution. He had been with the school since 2004 as a tutor and a full-time professor since 2007.
On Jan. 26, 2015, Barnetson began a seven-day vacation. He posted a notice via the course web site and promised to respond to students’ questions upon his return.
Because Athabasca is a mostly distance-learning university, its operations are different from most: Students sign up for courses all the time and professors are required to respond to student queries on a regular basis throughout the year.
Unlike most schools, there is no summer break when not a lot of study takes place.
If a professor is to be away for 10 days or more, a tutor is assigned to handle teaching duties in order to maintain the school’s strict student standards.
But during Barnetson’s 2015 vacation, he felt compelled to respond to student questions and did so, estimating about three hours of his vacation time was spent answering email queries. Barnetson believed if he did nothing and let his work pile up, it would be too overwhelming to complete upon his return to regular duties.
The union argued that the 10-day rule that would automatically invoke a substitute tutor was arbitrary and put undue hardship on professors who wished to take smaller chunks of vacation time. It said when the work week resumed, it was unreasonable to expect the piled-up work to be completed during the regular 35-hour week, which was already full with normal duties.
The university agreed the figure of 10 could be considered arbitrary but said it was arrived at in a fair collective bargaining process and thus was agreed upon by all.
Dean Veronica Thompson testified Barnetson’s job has a regular “ebb and flow” and the missed work could easily have been accomodated once he was back on the job. Professors were also given extra time in the case of a vacation to complete work that was due.
When a new substitute tutor was put onto active duty for a professor, three separate computer systems had to be employed by the tutor, making the job challenging for the replacement.
Barnetson said he felt invoking all this extra upheaval put his students in an awkward situation and could unjustly cause them hardship.
“Some might argue a 2-3-day period is the best pick, others 20 days, but some point has to be picked. Student expectation of continuity, marking, and a contact person is a legitimate consideration for not making too quick a substitution,” said arbitrator Andrew Sims.
The university argued the vacation-substitution rule constituted a management right to organize the workplace and was perfectly reasonable within the collective agreement.
“During his vacation, Prof. Barnetson chose to answer emails, not wishing to hold up his student’s progress. Dean Thompson’s evidence is that he was neither asked nor required to do so. I cannot in these circumstances find that choice alone creates a breach of his vacation entitlement,” said Sims.
“The Faculty Association argues that he is unable to take full advantage of his full allotment of vacation days when his work (or more precisely some of his work) is deferred.”
The grievance was dismissed. “I cannot find the current policy either arbitrary or unreasonable,” said Sims.
Reference: Athabasca University and Athabasca University Faculty Association. Andrew Sims — arbitrator. Chantel Kassongo for the employer. Natalia Makuch, Ritu Khullar for the employee. Sept. 16, 2016.
