October 2023

There are four types of faculty contracts at Langara: two cover permanent, ongoing work, and two cover temporary work.

PERMANENT, ONGOING WORK

1. REGULAR contracts:
When ongoing work is available, you will be appointed to a REGULAR contract, also known as a Regular 3-year contract. Some faculty are hired directly into Regular contracts because ongoing work is available (perhaps due to a retirement of the creation of a new permanent position, for example, and there are no internal candidates); in this case your first appointment would be to a Regular 3 year contract.

A Regular contract means that you receive paid vacation time; regular faculty work 10 months and take 2 months vacation over a 12 month period. Regular instructional faculty normally teach for 8 months of the year over 2 semesters and have 1 non-instructional semester; normally instructors take 44 days (2 months) vacation and do 2 months of non-instructional duty (NID) in their non-teach term. Non-instructional faculty are less tied to the semester system in their scheduling of work and vacation time.

If ongoing work is available and you are an internal temporary/reg-in-temp faculty, you will be appointed to a REGULAR contract (assuming you are qualified, have satisfactory evaluations, and are next in line); the contract length may be less than 3 years if, for example, you have already served for 2 FTE years as a reg-in-temp.

2. CONTINUING contracts:
After you have worked the equivalent of three full-time years on a REGULAR contract, and successfully completed two evaluations while on regular contract, you will get a CONTINUING contract.

If you are on a REG-IN-TEMP contract and the work becomes ongoing, you will convert either to a REGULAR or to a CONTINUING contract; you will become CONTINUING when you have worked the equivalent of 3 FTE years as a regular/reg-in temp, and successfully completed two evaluations while on regular/reg-in-temp contract.

When will I get tenure?

We don’t have tenure at the College, but a CONTINUING contract is about as close as you can come to tenure.  So 3 years at the earliest, though it could take longer if you are part time or if you are always doing replacement work. You will not get a continuing contract until there is ongoing work for you.

TEMPORARY WORK

3. TEMPORARY contracts:

Temporary contracts are assigned in two situations: i) to replace Regular or Continuing faculty with ongoing work who are on leave, or ii) when the College considers that the work is not expected to be ongoing. Article 10.3.5.1 states that "Temporary contracts will be reviewed at the end of one (1) year to determine appropriateness for conversion to a regular contract." Contact your Department Chair and/or an LFA steward if you have questions about the temporary nature of your work. It is advisable for you to track your own contract and work history as you progress - for more information see Contract Conversion.

For many new faculty, the first contract is a TEMPORARY contract, often referred to as a TERM contract. For instructional faculty, the first Temporary contract includes one month of prep time, and (usually) four months of teaching. Temporary  contracts are given for classes added late, for replacement work (if someone is on leave), or for work that the College does not deem to be ongoing.

Faculty on Term contracts are paid out for their vacation, and vacation pay is included on each paycheque. The typical instructional Term contract is four-months long, and Term faculty can work back-to-back contracts for up to 25 months straight before they convert to a Reg-in-temp contract.

Sometimes the first Temporary contract is an EMERGENCY contract. This means that the department did not know about the vacancy until just before the semester or the work period started. An EMERGENCY contract does not include the one month of prep time, and does not allow the faculty member to earn seniority. You can only be on an EMERGENCY contract once – if you get any work after that first semester, then it will be on a Temporary contract and you will get your one month of prep time then. To clarify – even if work after the first contract is available at short notice on an emergency basis, your second contract will not be an emergency contract. A person hired on an emergency contract will get the seniority associated with their emergency contract work if they later get a temporary contract.

4. REG-IN-TEMP contracts:
After two years on Temporary contract, if your work is still deemed to be temporary, you may get a REGULAR-IN-A-TEMPORARY-VACANCY (REG-IN-TEMP) contract. The “IN-TEMP” means that the work is temporary, either because it is not part of the department’s base budget, or because the person who usually does the work is on leave.

This contract type means that your work is still temporary replacement work, but your working conditions will change. A Reg-in-Temp contract means that you receive paid vacation time.

Reg-in-Temp instructional faculty normally take vacation and do non-instructional duty (NID) in their Non-Teach term. Instructional Reg-in-Temp contracts are usually six months (four months instruction, plus one month non-instructional duty, plus one month vacation) or 12 months (eight months instruction, plus two months non-instructional duty, plus two months vacation). If additional work becomes available, a 6-month contract can be extended. However, there is no guarantee that your Reg-In-Temp contract will be extended or renewed – it all depends on what work is available.

Reg-in-Temp contracts may be given to non-instructional faculty on first hire, since that generally suits the administrative and operational needs of the department. These contracts are also usually 6 or 12 months long.

Your monthly Reg-in-Temp pay cheque will be smaller than when on a Temporary contract because your vacation pay will be paid in your vacation month rather than during each work-month… but you’ll get paid for 6 or 12 months.

Note that Reg-in-Temp, Regular and Continuing faculty are all referred to as "regularized".