Unit 1 Members,
The last few weeks have been challenging and as the COVID-19 situation continues to impact our communities, we expect those challenges will continue.
Your Union has been working with the University on what the longer-term plans will look like.
Members whose positions can be done remotely will continue to do so. If your remote workload does not constitute enough to maintain your regular hours you may be asked to take on alternative work to keep you fully employed. This could be training, project work or even duties assigned from other area positions.
Members who are in roles that cannot be done remotely may also be assigned alternate work where possible.
If you are not in a role where you can work from home or alternate remote work is possible your supervisor may ask you to begin taking vacation.
We appreciate that no matter which situation you find yourself in, these solutions are not ideal. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were unexpected and as such we are all working to find solutions that maintain our members income and benefits during this uncertain time. For those required to, using vacation will ensure your income and benefits continue throughout April.
The messaging that we have received from the University is that any of these arrangements that are made in the next couple of weeks will be made reasonably with individual circumstances in mind. Using vacation time to keep income and benefit levels at the maximum amount, should be done in a thoughtful way. University leadership has assured us that they have directed supervisors to take this approach. If you feel that you are not being given reasonable options, please reach out to me so that I can address things as they come up. Often, these messages are lost in translation. We cannot help if we are not aware of the issues.
The work your Union is doing with the University is on-going as we try to find longer term solutions that will support our membership until there is some return to normalcy on campus.
The Unifor National COVID-19 webpage has a wealth of Resources and Fact sheets relating to various leaves that may be relevant to you depending on your situation.
The Unifor 5555 website will be updated with Local and Unit information as details of the various steps being taken are confirmed.
We also know that this situation is having an impact on many aspects of members lives outside of work, so we have compiled a number of resources relating to Mental Health, Addiction and Domestic Violence as well as some community support on our Mental Wellbeing Resources page.
Members are also encouraged to reach out to me at sarah-kai.antanaitis@unifor5555.ca if they have questions or concerns.
In Solidarity,
Sarah-Kai Antanaitis
Unit 1 Chair