HomeMy WebLinkAboutRichman 01-10-09In the matter of an arbitration
between
Fanshawe College of Applied Arts and Technology
(hereinafter referred to as the College)
and
Ontario Public Service Employees Union, Local 109
(hereinafter referred to as the Union)
Classification Grievance: T. Richman (0 lC 129)
Sole Arbitrator: Gregory J. Brandt
Appearances:
For the College: Sheila Wilson, Human Resources Consultant
Jane Allardyce, Chair Career Development in Business and
Health Division
For the Union: Barbara Ford, Chief Steward
Teresa Richman, Grievor
Hearing:
Fanshawe College
October 26, 2001
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AWARD
1. Introduction
The grievor is employed as a Support Services Officer in the Career Development
in Business and Health Division of the Continuing Education Department at the College.
She is currently classified as a Support Services Officer B, Payband 9. She claims that
she is improperly classified and seeks a reclassification to Support Services Officer
Atypical, Payband 12.
The parties are in agreement as the contents of the Position Description Form. It
provides, inter alia, as follows:
Position Summary
Under the general supervision of the Chair, Career Development in Business and Health,
administers the division's part time business courses and programs (eg. OMDP
Certificate, Call Centre certificate, conversational languages), workshops, co-ordinates
activities of Contract Training Staff.
Duties and Responsibilities
Administers the division's part time business courses and programs (eg. OMDP
Certificate, Call Centre certificate, conversational languages) and workshops including:
- assisting students and teachers on problem solving
-scheduling courses, instructors, classrooms/labs, off-campus sites, hardware/software
-assisting with identification and development of new courses
-sourcing part-time teachers
-call centre lab maintenance
-updating existing course outlines
-close liaison with contract training team
-providing program information to clients
-marketing program
-complies and analyzes statistical and financial data with respect to budget; identifies
problem areas; recommends solutions
50%
Co-ordinates Contract Training marketing representatives activities, as well as, provides a
high degree of inbound and outbound telesales skills to support their activity.
Contracts and arranges delivery of off-the shelf products for contract training.
25%
Facilitates the administrative functions associated with program delivery (CE and
Contract Training) that include:
- invoices, P/As, WHMS verification, student records, course outlines, evaluations, files,
general ledger etc.
- devises creative systems when launching new program/courses
- tracks student admissions, registration with paid fees, transfers, withdrawals and
maintains accurate records
- ensures program supplies, printing, curriculum, textbooks, etc. are available to support
teaching (e.g. lab supplies and maintenance).
20%
Other:
-performs other duties as assigned 5%
The Arbitration Data sheet provides as follows:
College Union
Level Points Level Points
1. Training/Technical Skills 5 91 5 91
2. Experience 3 32 4 45
3. Complexity 5 74 6 90
4. Judgement 5 84 6 102
5. Motor Skills C3 25 C3 25
6. Physical Demand 2 16 3 28
7. Sensory Demand 3 28 4 39
8. Strain from Work Pressures3 28 5 50
9. Independent Action 4 46 5 60
10. Communication/Contacts 3 88 4 124
11. Responsibility for Actions 4 62 5 80
12. Work Environment 1 10 2 32
Total Points 581 76
Pay band 9 12
During the course of the hearing the College accepted the union's rating for the
Motor Skills factor. Thus, apart from Motor Skills and Training/Technical skills, the
parties are in disagreement as to the appropriate rating for the rest of the factors.
2. Job Duties and Responsibilities
The grievor has administrative responsibility for curriculum development and
delivery of courses within her division in the Continuing Education department of the
College. All of these courses are offered by instructors who are not members of the
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College faculty and who are contracted to teach the particular course in question for a
particular negotiated fee. Further, all of the courses are sold to prospective students at a
price which, except for the Ministry funded courses, is established having regard to
market conditions and existing practices. With respect to courses that are established in
the curriculum, with an established course outline and price the griever has various
administrative duties which could be said to be relatively routine in nature. Thus, she is
responsible for ensuring that the appropriate data respecting the type of course (whether
lecture, lab or self study) student contact hours, teacher contact hours, start and stop
dates, course fees, etc. are all correctly entered into the VAX system. Further, in this
regard, she is responsible for ensuring that teaching materials requested by the instructors
have all been ordered and are available for students at the start of the term. She is also
responsible for ensuring that letters of confirmation that go out to instructors accurately
set out the course, rates of pay, hours of work ensuring that the rate of pay is no more or
no less than has been negotiated with the instructor and that the hours of work do not
exceed those permitted by the agreement between the College and the faculty union. She
is also responsible for accurately reporting to Revenue Canada the amount of fees paid by
students. She is also responsible for ensuring that all grades are correctly entered for
graded courses and that all certificate requirements have been met by students and that
the registrars office has all the information that is needed for graduating students. Where
a review committee recommends a change in one of the programs for which her division
is responsible, it is her responsibility to ensure that those changes are incorporated into
the curriculum and, in that regard, to involve the instructor in the process.
For the purposes of this case the griever relies primarily on that aspect of her job
which is less routine in nature and which requires her to take administrative responsibility
for ensuring that new courses are added to the curriculum and for marketing those
courses to prospective students or for marketing existing courses ("off the shelf'
products) to others for delivery off site.
Proposals for new courses or changes in existing courses may come to the griever
in various ways. They may come from students completing course evaluation
questionnaires, from "cold calls" from instructors (either existing or potential), or from
various other institutions that may be offering courses for inclusion in the College
curriculum. Where a proposal has come in the griever is responsible for finding an
instructor who would be suitable to teach the course. That may involve asking those on
her existing "roster" of instructors if any of them can teach it or whether they are aware
of someone in the community who could teach it. Once an instructor has been found who
is willing to offer the course, and the fee is agreed on, the griever invites him/her to put
in a proposal with a course description, methods of evaluation etc. and various other
information which the College requires to be given to students - information which is set
out in the College policies and procedures manual. Where the proposal conforms to what
is required the griever ensures that it is placed in the Course Guide. Where the instructor
is new to the College, the griever would arrange for an interview with her supervisor, Ms.
Allardyce who generally acts on the griever's recommendation that the instructor be
hired to teach this particular course. Where the instructor is an existing instructor, known
to the College, and who wants to teach a different course, the griever merely reports to
Ms. Allardyce that the instructor in question will be teaching the course.
Where it is found, for example through the course evaluations, that a particular
instructor is not doing a satisfactory job, the griever is responsible for taking the decision
not to renew the contract - in which event she informs Ms. Allardyce of her decision. In
that event, if the course is to continue, the griever follows the process set out above for
sourcing and hiring another instructor.
The griever is responsible for "pricing" the course, that is, setting a price that will
attract sufficient numbers of students to offset the costs of offering the course (eg. the
instructors fees etc.) and which will allow the College to meet certain revenue targets that
have been set for the griever and the department. Except in the case of a course that is
Ministry funded, the griever is free to set the price at a level which, in her judgment, the
market will bear - a decision which she makes on a comparative basis with other courses,
length of course and on her experience with the market.
Once the course is established in the curriculum and the price is set it is the
griever's responsibility to market the course through advertising in course calendars, the
local press, through the distribution of brochures and flyers, and direct mail to companies
that may have an interest in the course. Once registration has started the griever watches
enrelment to see how many students have been attracted and, if it is too low, she may
decide to do some extra advertising or, where it is thought necessary, may decide to
cancel the course. The primary reason for cancelling a course would be the inability to
cover the costs of the course. However, on the recommendation of the instructor, a
course might be cancelled if low enrelment would not permit the instructor to teach the
course in the way he/she wished, eg. team building courses. It may also be the case that
6
decisions will need to be made with respect to re-scheduling or re-packaging a course in
order to make it more attractive to potential students, i.e whether to offer it in the winter
term or whether to compress it into 3 full days rather than 3 hours a week over a period of
10 weeks. These decisions are made by the griever, largely based on her review cf what
is reported in the student course evaluations.
Approximately one third of the courses offered by the College are "owned" and
priced by associations such as the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario, the Certified
Professional Sales Association of Ontario, etc. Although the College can "sell" these
courses to prospective students it can make no changes to the program and must work
within the guidelines and the materials supplied by the associations. Although the
griever may have the same role in "sourcing" out instructors to teach these courses, viz,
recommending to Ms. Allardyce that a certain instructor be hired, final approval needs to
be obtained by the association in question.
Some courses, chief among which is the Ontario Management Development
program,, are funded by government - in which event the curriculum and price are set by
government. The griever is, however, involved in the marketing of this course (which
"sells a lot") and in the process of finding instructors for the course - a process which is
the same as for other courses.
According to the PDF a quarter of the griever's time is spent on contract training
courses. These duties arise in two contexts, "off the shelf' courses and "customized"
course. First, companies may purchase "off the shelf' one of the courses which the
College offers and have their staff take the course either at the College or at the site of
employment. In those situations the griever does the administrative work necessary to
ensure that the course is priced appropriately and delivered. While the purchaser of the
course does all of the marketing of the course the griever is still required to do all the
course sectioning, prepare the letters of confirmation, follow up on the course evaluations
and to invoice the company for the course. Secondly, the College has training
consultants on staff who are responsible for selling "customized" training to various
clients; that is, they conduct a needs analysis of the company and design a course that
specifically addresses those needs. The griever's role in connection with that activity is
to advise on the pricing of a course and on instructor availability. Further, as with the
other courses, she does the various administrative data entry duties that are required for
these courses.
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3. Discussion and Conclusions.
a) Guide Chart or Core Point Rating
The first question to be addressed is whether, in arriving at a correct classification
level, the position should be guide charted or core point rated. The Job Evaluation
Manual makes it clear that, in order to preserve the principle of relative value, positions
are to be rated using the Job Evaluation Guide charts save and except for that "relatively
small number of unique or atypical positions" (Manual, Section I, page 2) which are not
covered by the Guide Charts and which most be evaluated by the Core Point Rating Plan.
Thus, before conducting Core Point Rating it is necessary first to consider whether or not,
having regard to the typical duties and responsibilities of the position, it bears a
"reasonably close approximation to a classification level described in a Guide Chart."
(Manual, Section II, page 1). If not, it is to be treated as an atypical position and must be
rated by reference to the Classification Guide Charts.
In this case there can be no doubt (and there is no dispute between the parties) that
the position falls properly within the Support Services Officer Job Family. According to
the Manual that family "covers positions that perform administrative duties that are
functional/project oriented rather than task oriented and involve conceptualizing,
facilitating and project managing". (Section VI, pages 2-5) The issue is whether or the
typical duties and responsibilities of the position are a "reasonably close approximation"
of those set out in the Classification Guide Charts for the position of Support Services
Officer B.
The Guide Chart for Support Service Officer B provides, inter alia, as follows:
Summary of Responsibilitylncumbents perform a variety of complex duties associated
with the administration of college academic/administrative programmes in response to
requirements of client groups. Liaison functions are normally of an interactive nature.
Typical Duties - Compiles and analyzes data in order to provide recommendations
as to appropriate courses of action.
- Prepares operation plans, schedules and terms of reference
- Represents college in dealing with public by attending appropriate
functions.
- Trains, co-ordinates and monitors activities of others as appropriate.
In my opinion the duties and responsibilities of the grievor fall quite comfortably
into the typical duties and responsibilities of a Support Services Officer B.
Dealing first with the Summary of Responsibility, there is no question that she
performs a "variety of complex duties" that range from comparatively routine data entry
duties to the identification of new "products" (i.e. courses) and the marketing of those
courses to potential students. Furthermore, those duties are performed in connection
with the administration of a part of the College's academic program "in response to the
requirements of client groups." The griever essentially responds to the expressed
demands of those client groups (i.e. students, instructors, clients in the community)
which are made known to her through course evaluations, or through instructors or clients
in the community contacting her either with proposals or seeking information as to what
the College has to offer. When contacted in this way her liaison functions tend to be
"interactive" rather than "proactive" (as is required in the Guide Charts for the Support
Service Officers C and D.) In general, she responds to requests from the client groups
rather than takes the initiative in setting up those contacts.
Similarly, when examining the typical duties of the position, it becomes evident
that there are a number of respects in which the duties performed by the griever fit
comfortably within those of a Support Services Officer B.
1. Compiles and analyzes data in order to provide recommendations as to
appropriate courses of action.
In my view this accurately describes the whole process of examining course
evaluations with a view to determining whether or not there is a need to introduce a new
course or to "re-package" an existing course in a way which will make it more attractive
to students. Further, it captures that part of her duties in which she "sources out"
instructors and decides who should be recommended for hiring. While it is the case that
her supervisor, Ms. Allardyce, has given her considerable scope to make decisions in this
regard, it remains the case that essentially what she does is make recommendations to
Ms. Allardyce for action. It is Ms. Allardyce who must sign the course description and it
is Ms. Allardyce who ultimately signs the letters of confirmation for instructors and
approves of the fees to be paid to them. In this regard it is worth noting that the guide
charted factor level for Independent Action contemplates that incumbents in this position
will have "considerable freedom to act independently". Thus, the fact that the griever
may enjoy a good deal of independence in terms of adding courses to the curriculum or
selecting instructors for those courses, is not inconsistent with her being classified as a
Support Services Officer B.
It may also be noted that the griever's role in connection with those courses which
are "owned" by various associations, the "off the shell" courses purchased by clients and
the "customized" courses designed specifically for clients, is more limited in that she has
less responsibility in connection with course content and selection of instructor. Further,
it is noted that, in connection with the customized courses, the griever does none of the
"needs analysis" that is done by the training consultants. I find it significant that the
Guide Chart typical duties of an SSO C include analyzing "requirements of groups both
within and external to the College" and developing pregrammes to meet these
requirements" - a description which appears to capture closely the work that is done by
the training consultants. Similarly the typical duties of an SSO D include identifying
requirements of outside groups for college services and developing programs to meet
these requirements. The fact that this kind of duty is not performed by the griever but is
specifically included among those performed by an SSO C and SSO D lends support for
the conclusion that she is correctly guide charted as an SSO B.
2. Prepares operation plans, schedules and terms of reference.
The griever's PDF explicitly provides that she schedules courses, instructors,
classrooms/labs, off-campus sites, hardware/software.
4. Trains, co-ordinates and monitors activities of others as appropriate.
The griever's PDF states that she "co-ordinates contract training marketing
representatives. Further the griever stated at the hearing that she "trains" other staff
(secretaries or other support service officers) in her cost centre on College systems and
policies. It can also be said that the griever "monitors" course enrelment (during the
registration period) and "monitors" the performance of instructors through her review of
the course evaluations at the end of the course.
Thus, it can be fairly concluded that the griever's typical duties and
responsibilities reasonably approximate those set down in the Classification Guide Charts
for a Support Services Officer B. The validity of this conclusion draws further support
from that fact that none of the typical guide chart duties for an SSO C or an SSO D
describe her duties.
Thus, I conclude that, based on this analysis, the griever is properly classified as a
Support Services Officer B.
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Although, given this conclusion, it is not necessary to Core Point Rate the job with
reference to the various job factors in dispute, I have nevertheless (as a means of double
checking) conducted such an analysis. Without going into this in any detail I conclude
that, with the possible exception of the factors of Judgment (which might support a rating
of level 6 (102) points and Physical Demand (which might support a rating of level 3 (28)
points), none of the other factors in dispute warrant a rating at the level which is claimed
by the union.
I will deal with each of these briefly.
With regard to the Experience factor, the PDF requirement of "three years of
directly related experience..." simply does not fit within level 4 which requires "more
than" three years of experience. With regard to the Complexity factor nothing in the
evidence indicates that the griever's duties qualify a rating of level 6 viz, "investigation
and resolution of a variety of unusual conditions involving the adaptation and/or
development of specialized processes and methods." With regard to Sensory Demand,
the PDF indicates that there is a need for concentration and close attention to detail when
keyboarding and proofing for 40% of the time - a level which, in my opinion, does not
meet the Core Point Rating plan requirement of "frequent" close attention to detail. With
regard to Strain from Work Pressures, although there are frequent interruptions, the PDF
indicates that the vast majority are either predictable (PR) or usually predictable (UP) -
which makes it fall more closely into level 3, viz, "Interruptiens, changing deadlines,
multiple demands occur regularly but are usually predictable." With respect to
Independent Action the griever admitted that, while she (by virtue of her lengthy
experience in the position) is able to do her job without the need to refer to policy
manuals or guidelines or to speak to her supervisor, that would not be the case for
someone who was entering the position without her experience. With respect to
Communication and Contacts it is clear that the purpose of the griever's communications
with others is essentially for the "purpose of explaining various matters by interpreting
procedures, policy, or theory" (level 3). Moreover, nothing in the evidence supports a
finding that she provides "basic instruction or for the resolution of complex problem
situations" or that, in her communications there may be a need for "sophisticated
influential or persuasive techniques in order to address the problem of those with special
needs" - as required for level 4. In connection with the factor of Responsibility for
Decisions and Actions the evidence is that errors are discovered after the fact. Moreover,
it is difficult to see how the impact cf these errors on the College as a whole (i.e. the
11/09/2001 13:24 FAX 519 679 92~9 BRA~DT ARB S¥CES
"organization) could be ~¢ated as leading to a "significant waste of resources'. With
respect to thc Working Conditions factor the PDF states that the grievor works for 95% of
thc time in a normal office environment - which qualifics her at level 1, viz, "occasional
exposure to slightly disagrceable and/or ba?ardous elements."
Thus, even assuming success on the factors of Judgment and Physical Demand,
tzar would only add a further 30 points to the total of 554 points arrived at under tlxe
College rating, that is, a total of 614 point~ - which fall~ ~hort of the threshold needed to
move the grievor into a higher payband. I wish, however, to make clear that I do not
m~e any finding that the position should be rated higher for the Judgment arid Physical
Demand factors as it is my conclusion that the position is more appropriately Guide
Charted and not, therefore, subject to the factor by factor Core Point Rating analysis.
The griev~mce is dismissed.
Dated at LONDON, Ont. this q day of ~ ~ (~c~ ,2001
Grcgory J. Brandt, Sole Arbitrator
11/09/2001 13:24 FAX 519 679 9239 BRANDT
AIqIIII'P. ATION DATA SHEET- SUPPORT STAFF CCL$SIFICATII;)N
College: ~'fv_i~~ Incumbent; ~ RiCi'41P~/c~,/~J Supen~sor:~J'"~r~[~
Present Cies~ification: ~Lt~D~:~tq,-r· ~J C~-'~ (::~F~C~. and Present Payband:
Job Family and Faybsnd Requested by Griever: ~.SO F~/~I~.~<_ - ~,~/~>~-~d~'~
1. Position DescriDtion Form At~acl~ed
2. ~ The parties agree on the cements of the attached Position Descdotion Form OR
[] T~e Union disagrees with the contents of the a~ta~hmd Position Description Form. The specific details of ~his
~llsagreemen~ are as
{use reverse side if necessary)
FACTORS
8. S~in from Work Pmssures/O~andslDeadlines
10. Communica:ions/Conta~
11. Responsibiti~ for Decisions/A~on~
A~ACHED WReN SUBMISSIONS: ~ ~a Union ~ ~e College
FOR ~E UNION FOR M~G~ENT