Langara instructors speak on uncertainty for future employment

By BOB HOMER

One-third of Langara instructors work term-by-term, facing uncertainty each semester about whether their employment will be renewed, according to the Langara Faculty Association.

From Oct. 21 to 25, the LFA held its annual campus wide campaign, called Fair Employment Week, to spotlight the issues facing temporary instructors by emphasizing their limited job security and benefits compared to permanent staff.

Niall Christie, an LFA board member and department chair of history, Latin and political science, said the campaign is part of a national initiative.

He said faculty associations across the country “try to draw attention to the plight of temporary faculty and to try and encourage administrations to improve the situation.”

LFA members used the campaign to display posters around campus and had an information table in the foyer of the A Building during the week.

The impact on instructors

President of the LFA, Pauline Greaves, said the college has hired regular faculty in temporary positions and said, “There is no guarantee that the employer will need to take care of them over the long term.”

Additionally, temporary faculty are expecting their roles to be impacted given the cap on enrolment of international students.

“So in business we have the PDF program, which is the post-diploma program, that are all international students. So one can make an assumption that [it] will be impacted.”

Christie said faculty are still facing problems with the people and culture department.

People and Culture and the LFA

“The LFA has been negotiating with the people and culture department and with our administration to try and get the situation improved,” Christie said.

“They [Langara instructors] are stressed, they are worried. They don’t know whether or not they’re going to be able to feed themselves next semester,” said Christie.

Long-standing issues with the people and culture department remain a concern, Christie said. He said those issues existed before he became department chair six years ago.

The people and culture department has offloaded human resources-related tasks to individual departments, leaving department chairs with an increased workload, said Christie.

“They have essentially downloaded almost the entire hiring process,” said Christie.

Barbara Kyle, a human resources consultant, said the role of an HR department is to give “the right guidance and support for interacting with their people.”

“Recruiting and onboarding consume nearly half of HR’s workload alone,” said Kyle, noting this puts extra strain on staff who are handling dual responsibilities.

Christie said that temporary instructors could be given non-instructional roles to help with job security.

Langara’s people and culture avoid addressing LFA comments

The Voice reached out to newly hired Vice President of people and culture, Parveen Mann, for an in-person interview but was declined twice.

Adam Brayford, communications director at Langara, said in an email statement, “Having recently started her role with us, she has been meeting members across our campus community and learning about areas in which we excel, as well as areas that need further attention and support.”

Despite ongoing concerns, Greaves remains optimistic.

“I’m hoping that they [people and culture] can deal with things in a timely manner.”

Video: Niall Christie, an LFA board member, explains the purpose of the LFA committee.