Article 12 – Personal Files

Data pertaining to the employment of an employee and necessary for the administration of this Agreement shall be placed in a personal file within the office of the employee's Dean; copies of the data contained in the personal file in the Dean's office may also be kept in department files and in the President's Office. In the case of medical reports provided in confidence by an employee's physician for the purpose of complying with the terms of the Academic Long Term Disability Plan, and in that case only, information regarding that employee shall be kept in a separate file in the Human Resources Division, and shall be accessible only to agents of the Employer for the purpose of administration of that plan. Any other requests for access to that information must be approved by the Joint Committee for the Management of the Agreement.

The Employer is responsible for assuring that the personal files within the Deans' offices have all of the relevant data. In particular, material in departmental and other files to be used in connection with renewal of probation, tenure, promotion or salary review shall be contained in the Dean's Office file. Employees are expected to cooperate with designated University officers engaged in the discharge of this responsibility.

12.1.1

No anonymous material, except approved course evaluations, shall be kept by the Employer concerning any employee. Approved course evaluations are those which:

1. are approved for use by the faculty of a department (or College in the case of a non-departmentalized College) in committee within guidelines established by the College, and
2. are properly validated instruments of performance evaluation. Information from such course evaluations included in an employee's file shall be aggregated or summarized and shall exclude any anonymous remarks made by students.

Each employee shall have the right to reasonable access to the entire contents of the employee's own personal file, with the exception of confidential information, as defined in Article 12.3. An employee may authorize a representative of the Association to review the employee’s file and summarize confidential information without revealing the source. The summary shall be reviewed and approved by the Dean or the Dean’s designate prior to being released to the employee. Examination of the contents may take place only in the presence of the Dean or a person designated by the Dean for this purpose. An employee may not remove any of the contents of the employee's personal file.

In the case of personal files, confidential information means signed letters of reference and any other letter or document transmitted in confidence which the employee, the employee's Department Head, Dean or other agent of the Employer has solicited in writing. Unsolicited documents and letters containing a serious allegation, whether they are transmitted in confidence or not, may be put in an employee’s personal file only if the allegation has been substantiated in accordance with the provisions of Articles 12.3.1, 12.3.2, 12.3.3, 12.3.4, and 12.3.5.

12.3.1

If any document(s) or letter(s) containing a serious allegation of misconduct are received by a Department Head, they shall be transmitted to the Dean. When a Dean receives any document(s) or letter(s) containing a serious allegation of misconduct, the Dean shall undertake an inquiry, which shall include discussing the relevant facts or opinions with the employee. The employee may choose to be accompanied by a representative of the Association during such discussion with the Dean.

12.3.2

When an allegation is made against an employee, the Dean shall make the document(s) or letter(s) available to a representative of the Association. The Association representative may summarize the allegation for the employee, without revealing the source of any confidential letter or document to the employee. The summary shall be reviewed and approved by the Dean or the Dean’s designate prior to being released to the employee.

12.3.3

Following the initial inquiry, the Dean shall:

1. Dismiss the allegation, or
2. Inform the employee of the outcome of the inquiry, and the option(s) for informal resolution, or
3. Inform the employee of the outcome of the inquiry and the decision to proceed with a formal investigation.

12.3.4

If the Dean determines that a formal investigation is warranted, the Dean shall investigate or direct the investigation in accordance with the following:

1. Where applicable, the investigation shall follow the procedures prescribed by university policy, and/or corresponding legislation.
2. All documentation pertaining to the allegation, including the identity of the complainant, shall be forwarded to the employee and the Association.
3. The employee shall be given an opportunity to respond to the allegation.
4. The Employer shall provide the Association with copies of any related correspondence with the employee.
5. The employee and the Association shall be notified of the outcome of the investigation.
6. Upon request, the Employer will release a copy of the investigative report to the Association, subject to appropriate limitations.

12.3.5

If the allegation is substantiated, the document(s) or letter(s) may be placed in the employee's personal file normally within 90 days of the receipt of the document(s) or letter(s), provided that the employee is informed and permitted to file any explanation in rebuttal. The fact that the employee was so informed shall be noted in the file.

12.3.6

All documents or letters that contain substantiated allegations of misconduct shall be expunged from the personal files after five years.

12.3.7

Letters of instruction shall be added to the employee’s personal file in accordance with the provisions of Article 30.2.

Letters of instruction shall be expunged from the personal files after five years, providing no reprimand has been issued to the employee during the intervening period.

12.3.8

Letters of reprimand shall be added to the employee’s personal file in accordance with the provisions of Article 31.2.

Letters of reprimand shall be expunged from the personal files after five years, providing no further reprimand has been issued to the employee during the intervening period.

An employee shall have the right to request an inventory of the documents in the employee's own personal file. The inventory shall not identify the author nor the substance of any confidential material, but shall list confidential documents only by date, general subject, purpose for which solicited, and the person by whom it was solicited or whether it was unsolicited.

The employee shall have the right to have included in the employee's personal file the employee's written comments on the accuracy or the meaning of any of the contents of the personal file, and to add any relevant third party documents to the file.

All copies of personal file documents kept in department files pertaining to an employee who has been appointed Department Head shall be transferred to the Dean's office files prior to the faculty member taking office, and retained therein for the duration of the employee's term as head.

Employees, upon written request to the Dean, and at their own expense, may obtain copies of the documents to which they have the right of examination.

Confidential information contained in personal files shall be available, when relevant, to officers of the University and to those employees serving on designated committees who require it for purposes of rendering decisions on matters such as appointment, renewal of probation, tenure award, promotion and salary review, suspension, and dismissal. Otherwise, no confidential information from an employee's personal file shall be made available except as authorized by this Agreement.

Any material in an employee's file which bears on a grievance in which the employee is involved as the aggrieved or the grieved against shall be made available to the Chair of the Association or the Chair's designate, a Grievance Officer and the Arbitrator. Any confidential items shall be clearly identified as transmitted in confidence.

When confidential information is to be used by the Employer or the Employer's agents in the course of proceedings under Article 31 of this Agreement, such confidential information, clearly identified as transmitted in confidence, shall be made available to the Chair of the Association or the Chair's designate, and a Grievance Officer.

12.11.1

On appointment, employees shall provide a curriculum vitae in the University standardized form to their Department Head or Dean. The curriculum vitae shall be in the format specified by the “Guidelines for the Preparation of a Standardized CV” as revised June 2013.

12.11.2

Curriculum vitae and curriculum vitae updates will form part of the contents of an employee’s personal file. They shall be considered data according to Article 12.1.

12.11.3

Except at the request of the employee or with the employee’s consent, a curriculum vitae may be released by the Employer only for the purposes of procedures and committees concerned with appointment, renewal of probation, tenure and continuing status, promotion, salary review, and sabbatical leave as outlined in the Collective Agreement, for consideration of honours and awards, or as legally required.

12.11.4

The information stored in the curriculum vitae may be used by the Employer for compilation of University, College and Department reports on research and scholarly work. Employees may choose to exclude particular information from appearing in public reports by notating the item(s) on their CV as “Exclude from Public Reports.”

12.11.5

Subject to timelines and procedures as specified in Article 14.5.9, 15.11.10, 16.6, and 17.5.6 of the Collective Agreement, each employee shall submit to their Department Head or Dean each year Form 1, “New items (items not previously reported)” and Form 2, “Revision of items previously reported and considered”. The employee’s Department Head or Dean may make suggestions to the employee for additions to, deletions from, or amendments to the employee’s curriculum vitae information. Responsibility for determining what shall be forwarded as the employee’s curriculum vitae update is the employee’s. On request the Employer will provide an employee with a copy of the employee’s own stored curriculum vitae.

12.11.6

The employee will maintain an updated curriculum vitae with the Employer.

12.11.7

Reasonable allowance will be made for employees on leave.

12.11.8

Failure or refusal of an employee to maintain an updated curriculum vitae with the Employer or to correct errors in the employee’s stored curriculum vitae shall not be introduced as evidence nor shall it be cause for discipline by the Employer under any proceeding initiated under Article 31 of the Collective Agreement.