A perennial and serious issue for CUPE 4163 Component 1 members is overwork. Academic work is unlike working on the factory floor or in a retail or office setting in that when doing academic work, one does not simply punch and punch or work set hours; academic work hours can be much harder to keep track of, and thus much harder to be compensated for.
With that in mind, the union is making available an Hours Tracking Sheet (adapted from one kindly shared with us by our friends at TSSU). The purpose of this hours tracking spreadsheet is to ensure that the actual hours you work as a Teaching Assistant do not exceed the hours for which you are paid. The greater the number of TAs who track their hours, the easier it will be for us to more accurately determine which departments (and even which courses) have overwork issues. The union needs to be able to locate the problem areas before we can deal with them.
There are sheets to track your hours in both the Fall (September – December) and Winter (January-April) semesters. There are also three sheets for each semester. These are for TAs who have been given more than one assignment in their TA appointment. If you are TAing more than one course, please use a different sheet for each course.
To make tracking your hours easier, there are rows for each day of the week (weekends included) so that you can enter hours on the sheet as you work them. We’ve also broken down the hours into different TA tasks. The sheet totals all of your hours automatically, so all you need to do is enter your hours, enter your name and the course name and number, and enter the total number of hours you’ve been assigned for this course.
If you find that your total number of hours worked is greater than the number of hours in your assignment, or if you find that part-way through the semester you’re in danger of exceeding the number of assignment hours, you should consult with your supervisor as soon as possible. If you can’t resolve the hours discrepancy with your supervisor, contact the union at office4163@gmail.com
Please download the sheet here: Hours Tracking Component 1 2024-25