YUFA
Stewards' Information
Employer's Request for CV & Statement of Outside Activities
23 Feb 04 - Most YUFA members have recently received from their Deans / Principal / University Librarian a letter asking them to submit an updated CV as per Article 22.07 and a separate "statement of outside professional activities" pursuant to Article 18.04.
The Employer is allowed to make these requests, in a form consistent with and to the extent described in the Collective Agreement. However, before providing any of the requested information to the Employer, you should be aware of the following information about your Employee rights and about YUFA's interpretation of these clauses.
1. The Request for Your CV:
The 2003-06 Collective Agreement does require you to provide an updated CV, including a "statement of current research interests", to the Employer upon request. This request cannot be made more than once each year. Please note, however, that any use by the Employer of any part of a member's CV is subject to the member's agreement "as to those portions of his/her curriculum vitae which may be so used". For information about providing your CV in electronic (digital) format, click here.
2. The Request for a "Statement of Outside Professional Activities":
Again, the Collective Agreement allows the Employer to make a request, including the request for regular updates of this statement "between requests" [18.04(a)].
In YUFA's view, Article 18.04 ensures that members have the right to engage in activities "outside the employee's University duties" (paid or not) without fear of discipline. In order to secure this right, YUFA has agreed with the Employer that activities should not "interfere with [employees'] obligations, duties and responsibilities to the University".
However, it is also YUFA's view that the Employer's sweeping interpretation of what should be included in the statement is confusing, unreasonable, arbitrary, and far beyond what was intended by the language. If the Employer's interpretation were followed, activities that could be deemed to "interfere" when not performed directly for the University include, for example: attending an academic conference during the teaching term; providing continuing education in a non-university setting such as a museum or non-profit organisation; writing reviews for a non-refereed publication; reviewing government policies in the mass media; volunteering for a charity or school; editing a journal or magazine; consulting for NGOs; writing a trade book or writing poetry.
Obviously this will not do. Such an interpretation could have significant consequences for YUFA members including facilitating the introduction of a system of direct monitoring and the Employer's right to judge the "appropriateness" of anything you do - professional or otherwise.
With this in mind, here are our recommendations on how to decide what to report:
(a) It is clear that "outside professional activities" are those that are not included in the job descriptions of faculty and librarians, which are found in articles 11.01 (faculty) and 11.02 (librarians).
Thus, YUFA's first point of advice in preparing a statement of outside professional activities is not to include any activities that fall under your professional responsibilities as set out in Article 11. Such activities are properly part of your academic CV. In addition, activities already noted in your CV need not be re-reported in the statement of outside activities.
Note: Any "full-time" activities or activities performed for another employer would not fall under Article 11 and would thus be deemed to be "outside".
(b) This being said, the activities to be reported must be clearly "professional" in nature, that is, directly related to your career and area(s) of professional competence. The activities to be reported are not those that can reasonably be defined as "personal", private or arising from your rights and responsibilities as a resident / citizen of your neighbourhood, city, province, country and planet, and so on. The fact that YUFA's contract does not specify "hours of work" or other such definitive measure makes the above distinction (i.e., between "professional" and "personal") somewhat less clear than is ideal. So, the best advice is to make a good faith judgement.
(c) Before you include any activity in your statement of outside professional activities, it must be either "substantial" or "continuing". These terms should be understood in their ordinary senses. "Continuing" means ongoing, regular, recurrent. "Substantial" is not so easily defined in this context, but is left to the member to judge in good faith.
(d) The statement need not include any remuneration you may be receiving for your outside activities.
(e) Finally, a note of caution. Those who are spending many hours or days doing outside activities (up to and including "full-time" activities) should be aware that the Employer has recently acted against several members who held very substantial and continuing positions with other employers. In the Employer's view, these members' outside activities interfered with their professional obligations to the University. If you are engaged in or contemplating very substantial and continuing outside activities, YUFA advises you to discuss them with your Dean / Principal / University Librarian, preferably in advance. This is also true for paid activities performed during a sabbatical, which must be reported as per articles 20.07 and 20.12.