The Collective Agreements for Academic Assistants, Residence Dons and Support Staff all have seniority language under Article 18.
Seniority in a unionized workplace is defined within the Collective Agreement, to provide objective, transparent criterion for making important employment decisions that help to reduce potential for favoritism, bias, or discrimination.
For Local 2010 Members, your Seniority Date refers to your length of time you have held a position in the bargaining unit. This is distinctly different from your Years of Service (YOS) Date, which refers to your length of continuous employment at the University.
Example: John Doe was hired as a Research, Grant and Contract employee on January 1, 2000 (non-bargaining unit position). On January 1, 2015, John Doe started a new position in the Support Staff bargaining unit (bargaining unit position), and is still working in this position. John Doe’s Seniority Date is January 1, 2015 (10+ years of seniority accumulated), but their Years of Service date is January 1, 2000 (25+ years of service accumulated).
Review your Collective Agreement to see if seniority in your bargaining unit is applicable to working terms and conditions such as, but not limited to:
- Job Security – long-term Steelworkers typically have greater protection during layoffs and temporary layoff recalls, often meaning newer employees are the first to be laid off (reverse seniority).
- Recruitment Processes – may be a factor of consideration, depending on which bargaining unit you belong, when the University is determining eligibility or priority for job postings, promotions, and job transfers. If 2 or more candidates are equally qualified for the same position, the candidate with the most seniority should be selected for the position.
- Vacation Approvals – Where it is not operationally possible to accommodate all requests, Departments/Units at the University employing a large complement of Members, may have to approve vacation requests in order of seniority under Article 22.05.
Seniority Lists:
Note: your Union Office receives copies of all Seniority Lists for each bargaining unit and verifies the information publicly posted by Human Resources.
All Members have the right to challenge the accuracy of their published seniority date once posted to the Human Resources web site (Article 18). To challenge/correct your seniority date, fill out the Seniority List Challenge Form (use the correct form for your bargaining unit), and submit to the Union Office (contact@usw2010.ca) and to Human Resources (hrelr@queensu.ca) for review and processing.
Questions regarding how to fill out/submit your Seniority List Challenge Form should be directed to your Union