Your Union raised concern that some of our members (specifically, returning TAs in the Faculty of Engineering) were only being paid for two of the five paid hours of the new, university-wide 5-hour TA training that came into effect in September 2021 and filed a grievance to ensure payment for all members. The Letter of Understanding that instituted the new training (i.e., the “Letter of Understanding re: Training” that can be found at the end of our Collective Agreement) clearly determines that all TAs would be paid 5 additional hours for undergoing this new training, no exceptions were made for any faculty, thus no TA should be left out of the deal.

We have recently reached a settlement with management that will allow everyone to be paid for the full 5 hours. If you have only been paid for 2 hours, you can complete an additional 3-hours of training that will allow you to receive a total of 5-hours of paid training.

We strongly encourage all members to complete the full 5 hours of training if you have not already, especially those returning TAs in Engineering. Please note, for the 3 hours you have yet to complete/be paid for, you can select from a variety of modules to best reflect your own interests and needs.
 
To check if you have only been paid 2 hours, you can log into Mosaic and on the top navigation bar, choose “Employee Self Service”, then click on “Pay” square. Look for a cheque value above average and click on it (make sure to disable any pop-up blockers). A PDF file with your paycheque will pop up and there should be a line in it named “TA Train”, and it should equal 5 hours and $224.75 in earnings if you are a grad TA, or $130.35 if you are an undergrad TA.

In order to receive payment for the training, you must successfully complete all 3-hours of training, including achieving a score of 100% on the quiz that is part of each training module, by no later than December 31, 2021. Information about how to register for the training can be found at: https://hr.mcmaster.ca/app/uploads/2021/08/TA-Training-Communication_How-to-Register.pdf

For those of you who are in this situation and complete the remaining 3-hours of training, you will be paid the 3-hours on the January 28, 2022 pay deposit.

Please note that if you do not successfully complete all 3-hours of training as noted above, you will not be paid for any partially completed training and you will not be able to complete the training, with pay, at a later date.”