Instructors in ELC (English Language & Culture) and ITP (Interpretation & Translation Program) are essential members of the SFU community who joined the TSSU in 2005.

The people that work at the ELC and ITP programs are continuing instructors. They are mostly (full time) continuing employees. However, they have essentially only half a contract. SFU proudly proclaims itself to be one of the top 100 employers in the country on the basis of benefits [McLean’s magazine] such as a pension plan, paid maternity leave, reasonable sick leave, other leave policies, and professional development support. Here we have a small group of dedicated, professional, teachers to whom the employer denies that which SFU celebrates. This cannot continue.

Many of these members have families at home and need a safe and secure work environment. The reality is that they are in an environment separate from the rest of the university. ELC/ITP instructors feel disrespected and separate from SFU because there is a difference between their benefits and those of the CUPE or APSA employees who work with them. Before joining TSSU, members in ELC/ITP were offered contracts with four weeks paid vacation (2000).  Now they receive the bare minimum of the Employment Standards Act, but only after filing a complaint against SFU with the Employment Standards branch. Not only did they have less than their counterparts in other employee groups, the employer (SFU) continued to deny them even what they were guaranteed by law. The most basic right to paid time off for statutory holidays has been denied to many of these instructors, the grievance filed against which has now been referred to arbitration.