Remember that you have the right to stop work after your hours are completed, regardless of how many assignments remain or what the other TAs are tasked to complete. Your supervisor has the responsibility to ensure that the work they assign to you can be completed in the number of hours indicated in your contract unless the Chair of the department has approved more hours. Therefore, now would  be a good time to discuss with your supervisor the number of hours allocated to each task and review how your hours have been spent so far (such a discussion is required per Article 31.4 of our Collective Agreement).

If you think you’ll exceed the hours stipulated in your contract, and you still have tasks to accomplish, we recommend that you fill out the Workload Review Form (Appendix E) as soon as possible and submit it to your supervisor.

Your supervisor may then decide:

a) Against increasing the number of hours in your contract. In this case, they will have to find a way for the work to be accomplished within the remaining hours by reducing other responsibilities. This agreement will need to be confirmed in writing.

– or –

b) To increase the number of hours so that the tasks may be completed. In this case, they will have to seek written permission from the Director of the Department before you can work overtime. Additional hours will be paid as a new contract.

If the above procedure is not followed, you are not required to work beyond the end of your contract, and you are not required to work more hours than are stipulated in your contract.

Workload Limit

As per the Collective Agreement, your supervisor cannot ask you to work more than twenty-five (25) hours per week. Moreover, you cannot be required to work more than forty (40) hours for a period of two consecutive weeks. If your supervisor insists that you work beyond the number of hours outlined above, please contact CUPE 2626 at info@2626.ca— we’ll be glad to help and offer you support.

Union Representation

Remember that you always have the right to be accompanied by a Union Representative at any meeting to discuss your workload. Although the CUPE 2626 team is working from home, we would be happy to make arrangments to participate in any online meetings or phone calls you are having with your supervisor.