Information regarding vacation carryover for Locals 99 and 92/99

Denied Vacation Carryover?

Please read and consider joining our grievance

Local 99 and 92/99 members:

Your Collective Agreement has language that allows you to carryover up to 40 hours of vacation leave to the next vacation year.  The language states that carryover can happen with the approval of the Employer. This establishes the carryover provision as a possibility, but not specifically a right, as the Employer has the discretion to deny the request. As many of you are aware, these requests are very typical and have been historically approved, without any requirement on the member to establish any reasons for the request. This is an established past practice and we believe this practice needs to continue. It is our position that the Employer’s decision to end it under these circumstances is unfair and unreasonable.

The Employer has communicated that vacation carryover will still be granted for members of the other NSGEU Local 77 on campus but not for Local 99. Their rationale is that the two Locals shouldn’t be treated the same because many of the members of Local 99 are at home being paid full salary and either not working or working greatly reduced hours. The Employer has also communicated the need to remove vacation leave banks from the books as a way to remove that financial liability in the hopes that it will allow for less extreme budgetary measures in the next fiscal year.

The Union’s position is that vacation carryover is an established practice and considering the current situation members should have all of their balance carried over, even above the 40 hours, if requested. No one stuck at home and unable to attend work is on vacation. No one can travel, visit relatives, go to the beach, camp, shop, or enjoy almost any of the activities they’d typically enjoy while on vacation. It is not the fault of the members they weren’t able to enjoy their vacation. Forcing a schedule on the membership is not reasonable. We appreciate the fact that members are being paid full salary but those monies have already been budgeted for and collected by the University. If you weren’t being paid full salary then Dal would be benefiting financially from the current medical crisis.

If you have unused vacation leave, members of Local 99 currently have a couple of options:

Option 1 – You can comply with the employer’s directive and take all of your vacation before the end of the vacation year either by scheduling the time yourself (if possible) or adhering to the Employer’s forced vacation schedule.

Option 2 – Join our grievance. We are filing a grievance contending this action by the Employer is in violation of their past practice and an unreasonable use of management rights. To do this, you can submit a written request to carryover your unused vacation and when you are sent notice of this denial, please forward it to your Employee Relations Officer, Darryl Warren at dwarren@nsgeu.ca

It is important to note that a grievance is not a guarantee of success and outside of a settlement the grievance would need to be decided by a third party arbitrator. If we are successful you will get vacation leave reinstated but if we are not you will lose the vacation leave you don’t use this vacation year so there is a risk if you don’t use it you will lose it.

If you have any questions just send your ERO, Darryl Warren an email dwarren@nsgeu.ca or contact me at 902 424 4063.