Several kinds of leaves are available to CUPE 3903 members.
You may take a leave if you need time off for conferences, injuries or disabilities, jury duty, bereavement, care-giving, emergencies, sickness, or gender transition. In addition, Unit 2 members can take leaves for research. If you are looking for information on leaves following the birth or adoption of the child, see the Parental Leaves page.
Some leaves are straightforward, while others may require that you meet certain thresholds or provide particular documentation. We recommend that if you wish to take or think you may be eligible for a leave, you contact a 3903 Staff member to assist you.
It is important to note that collective agreement leaves and academic leaves are not linked. Members who are graduate students will have to take leave from both their employment and their studies separately.
Where possible, members of all units should sign contracts for the term in which they are requesting leave before submitting a collective agreement leave request. This is important to ensure that you receive pay (in the case of paid leave) and retain your health benefits coverage for the duration of your leave.
Paid-Leave Calculations
Collective Agreement (CA) leaves can be found under Article 17 of the Unit 1 and Unit 2 and Article 16 of the Unit 3 and Unit 4 collective agreements. Members will note that those articles provide for a fractional amount of paid leave. This fraction is based on a standard of a 35-week September to April year. Taking sick leave as an example, there is a CA entitlement to 6/35 of the value of a member’s contract(s) in paid leave. If the contract(s) runs from September to April, 6 weeks in time = 6 weeks in pay. If the contract(s) run from September to December, 6 weeks time = 3 weeks pay.
Types of Leaves
Sick Leave
If you are ill or injured, you can get paid leave for up to six weeks on a full-year contract and three weeks for a single semester contract. You will need to provide a doctor’s note if requested.
Process: inform your immediate supervisor and department chair as soon as possible, and include your expected return date. Send requested documentation to the Employee Well-Being Office (ewb@yorku.ca); they will inform your department that your request is medically substantiated and will keep the details confidential. If your expected return date changes, make sure to keep your department informed with as much notice as possible.
If you need more time to recover from your illness or injury, you can take up to four months of unpaid leave. When returning from a prolonged absence, the employer may request documentation to the effect that you are ready to resume work. The union can also help you negotiate any workplace accommodations that you may require upon your return.
Learn more about workplace accommodations here.
Compassionate Leave
If you need to take time off to care for an ill member of your immediate family, you can take up to four weeks for a full-year contract and two weeks for a single semester contract of paid leave. If the diagnosis is terminal, you can have an extra two weeks paid (on a full-year contract) and a total of eight weeks (the rest unpaid).
In terminal cases where you run out of paid compassionate leave, you can opt to “borrow” up to three weeks of paid bereavement leave.
Process: Inform your direct supervisor and department of the duration of your leave. If you need to extend your leave or turn it into a bereavement leave, inform your department as soon a possible.
Bereavement Leave .
You can take up to four weeks for a full-year contract or two weeks for a single-term contract of paid bereavement leave in the event of the death of an immediate family member or equivalent.
Process: Inform your direct supervisor and department of the duration of your leave.
Domestic/Sexual Violence Leave
In cases where you or your child experience or are threatened with sexual and/or domestic violence, you can take up to six weeks for a full-year course and three weeks for a single-term course of paid leave. You can also take up to a semester of time off in unpaid leave.
Process: Inform your department of your leave in writing. They may ask for documentation from a qualified practitioner. The employer must keep the nature of your leave confidential, and is not entitled to details about the nature or extent of the violence. In cases of absences of more than 10 days, you are expected to keep your supervisor informed of your date of return as much as possible.
Gender Transition Leave
If you are undergoing gender affirming surgery, you can take up to eight weeks for a full-year contract and four weeks for a single-term contract of paid leave.
Process: Inform your supervisor and department of the dates of your leave. You will need to provide medical documentation to the effect of your surgery. Medical documentation should be sent to the Employee Well-Being Office (ewb@yorku.ca), who will keep it confidential.
Conference Leave
Unit 1 and 2 members are entitled to up to two weeks of paid conference leave for a full-year contract in order to present at conferences. For Unit 2 members, one of those weeks can be taken for professional development conferences, with approval from the Dean.
Process: Send the request in writing, with a copy of your conference invitation, to your hiring unit. You may be asked whether it’s possible to exchange services with a colleague instead (i.e. another TA takes your tutorial while you’re gone and you’ll take theirs the following week). If such an arrangement is feasible, the employer can insist you do this instead of taking a paid leave.
Jury Leave
As long as your jury duty conflicts with your work schedule, you are entitled to paid leave, minus what the court pays you for your duties.
Process: Send a written request to your hiring unit, attaching a copy of the summons. Upon your return to work, you will need to present your hiring unit with written confirmation of the times and dates you served on the jury, signed by a court official.
Emergency Leave
In cases of an emergency that isn’t otherwise covered by the collective agreement leaves, you are entitled to two weeks for full-year contracts and one week for single-term contracts of paid leave.
Process: Inform your supervisor and department of your leave as soon as possible.
General Leave (Unit 2)
For Unit 2 members who have taught at least 1 Type 1 or equivalent for four years can request up to twelve months of unpaid leave, in which you accrue seniority at the rate of the average of the two previous years, to a maximum of 3.0.
Process: Requests must be made in writing to Faculty Relations at least two months before the start of the leave.