Dear TAs,
Thank you to everyone who has reached out to us regarding your ability to access the Workday HR system, your employee email, and/or Zoom Pro. This is a follow-up to the emails we sent September 15 and September 28 and we are able to provide some updates at this time.
Filling out our survey is still the best way for us to keep track of issues and address potential violations of your labour rights. We will follow up with you before we pursue any next steps. We have also forwarded and will continue to forward all survey information we receive to HR. Below we have included other courses of action that have been described to us by McGill to help expedite solutions.
Needless to say, these issues are frustrating and time-consuming, and are putting many of our members in increasingly precarious financial situations. Aside from everything else we recommend here, please keep track of all of the additional hours you are working to address the technical glitches of McGill’s own making. You should be paid for every hour that you work, and if you are at risk of working over your contract, let your course supervisor know, and/or reach out to us at grievance.1@agsem-aeedem.ca.
Pay and Payroll
The most pressing issue is that many TAs have not yet been paid. Under the TA Collective Agreement, TAs must receive their first pay cheque within 30 days of starting their contract by direct deposit.
The pay period to look out for in this case is September 6-19, 2020. This pay should have been processed by your department by September 23, and appear in your bank account by October 1. You can check whether you will receive pay on time by logging into Workday > Pay > Payslips. If you do not have this pay stub and you started September 2, you were not paid on time. If you started your TA contract even earlier than September 2, you definitely were not paid on time.
Violations we are tracking:
Some TAs are getting paid by cheque rather than direct deposit
Some TAs are not receiving their mailed cheques
Some TAs have not been paid on time or at all
If any of these 3 cases apply to you, please do the following:
1. Fill out AGSEM’s survey, if you have not done so already (you can fill it out again if things have changed for you). We have already followed up with those who have indicated that they have not been paid, and will continue to do so for additional complaints.
If you have not received a mailed cheque, or you have not received payment at all, you should also:
2. Open a ticket with McGill HR by emailing hr.hr@mcgill.ca. There are a number of critical errors in the system for pay, and these must be fixed by HR.
Unable to Log into Workday
Many TAs are unable to log into Workday at all, either with their student (@mail.mcgill.ca) or employee (@mcgill.ca) email. If this is the case for you:
1. Try troubleshooting McGill’s Virtual Private Network (VPN).
2. If that doesn’t work and you still cannot log in, open a ticket with McGill HR by emailing hr.hr@mcgill.ca.
3. If any of these issues have affected your ability to be paid, let us know by filling out AGSEM’s survey, if you have not done so already.
Unable to Update Information or Information is Incorrect on Workday
Once logged in, some TAs are unable to update their payroll or personal information to get paid. Other TAs are listed as “terminated”, are unable to see their TA position on Workday, or have not signed a contract yet. These issues may be related to an incomplete hiring process.
1. Bring this issue to the attention of your local HR Advisor (list here). They should have been provided with information to help you navigate the functions of Workday.
2. If the issue cannot be resolved at the local level, bring this to the attention of central HR by emailing hr.hr@mcgill.ca.
3. If any of these issues have affected your ability to be paid, let us know by filling out AGSEM’s survey, if you have not done so already.
Unable to Access your Employee Email
Before the switch to Workday, TAs were able to activate an employee email (@mcgill.ca) through Minerva. We still do not know whether McGill IT intends to activate employee emails for all TAs. That said, McGill’s instructor license for Zoom Pro is activated through employee emails, and the union’s position is that as teaching staff, all TAs should have access to their employee account and the tools they need to do their work.
1. Contact McGill IT if you have an employee email activated, but you cannot use it.
2. Fill out AGSEM’s survey (if you have not done so already) if you do not have access to your employee email, and especially if you need an account integrated with MyCourses.
Unable to Access a Licensed Zoom Pro Account
While McGill’s institutional Zoom license has integrated employee emails with the MyCourses Course Management System, it is still possible to activate a licensed account on your student email, which is one workaround McGill’s Teaching and Learning Services is suggesting in the meantime: “It is very important that you activate your Licensed Zoom account so that we can move ahead with making you alternative hosts for the sessions you will facilitate – to do this, you simply need to log out and back in to Zoom. Some of you may have done this already, but if not, please follow these steps as soon as possible:
1. Go to https://mcgill.zoom.us/
2. Sign in with your McGill email and password as normal
3. Click “profile” in the side menu
4. Scroll down and click “Sign me out from all devices”
5. Log back in at https://mcgill.zoom.us/ and you should be good to go!
6. To verify, you should see “Licensed” as the user type in your profile menu or it should say Licensed next to your name when you click your profile picture in the upper right of the window.
7. If this issue persists, please contact IT Services.”
As always, any additional issues or questions about Workday, Zoom, or your employee email can be sent to president@agsem-aeedem.ca.
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