{"id":19946,"date":"2025-09-14T02:48:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T02:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/19946\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T02:48:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T02:48:06","slug":"fas-employee-bumped-from-position-while-on-disability-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/19946\/","title":{"rendered":"FAS employee bumped from position while on disability leave"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following layoffs in July<\/a>, an employee from the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS) has been bumped from his position for a more senior member.<\/p>\n

Mark Evans, who has worked as a Technologist within the department of Physics for three years, went on long-term disability in 2024. Evans explained in an interview with The Journal that during his time on leave, he gradually got to a position to be able to return to work and was cleared by his medical team for reintegration, something he said his boss was \u201cvery excited\u201d about. However, when he set up a meeting with the University in late August to discuss the return, he received the news.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I was told] there was a layoff, which I was unaware of, and that in the union [\u2026] they\u2019ve this process called bumping\u2014which does exist and is considered legal\u2014which would allow a person with more seniority within the union, if they have the equivalent qualifications, to displace me so that they could continue to work,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n

He said his displacement was explained in a video call with Human Resources (HR) and CUPE Local 254<\/a>, the union representing him. It was explained to him that he wasn\u2019t told of his position being given away earlier, as his official return to work date was Sept. 15, meaning he wouldn\u2019t be officially laid off and served a notice until that day. However, he\u2019s still unsure if Sept. 15 will be his official layoff date as he hasn\u2019t received confirmation yet.<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Journal, CUPE 254 President Marie Edwards outlined how the collective agreement<\/a> (CA) applies to employees on leave when bumping occurs. She first explained that the CA allows senior employees\u2014with seniority determined by total length of unbroken employment at the University\u2014who have been laid off \u201cto bump into a position held by a less senior employee provided certain conditions are met.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a person is on leave from a position that is bumped, it doesn\u2019t affect their leave.\u00a0 When they return, they would be in a lay-off position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards added that HR meets with affected members alongside a union representative, and that \u201cthe CUPE 254 CA has no language to guarantee that the position of an employee on leave cannot be bumped. Bumping is governed by seniority as specified in the CA.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the union\u2019s role is to ensure the agreement is followed, adding they can\u2019t ensure a new position is provided in cases of bumping, but can \u201censure that all Articles of the CA are upheld.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evans said he doesn\u2019t fault the individual who displaced him and even supports the idea of seniority taking precedence. Instead, he criticized the lack of communication.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time of the initial layoff and the second, my position was decided to have been bumped by somebody else, I should\u2019ve gotten a notice that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained he\u2019ll enter the redeployment pool, which gives him first access to new internal postings, but added that he\u2019s still concerned about whether he\u2019ll be able to find a new position and with his disability benefits ending, he said he\u2019s now facing immediate financial uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [his insurance company] mentioned something about a one-time payment to help bridge the gap, and then after that, I would be going on to EI (employment insurance<\/a>),\u201d he said. \u201cEI is based on a percentage of what you make, and I don\u2019t even know yet whether that\u2019s the percentage of what I got on disability, which is a percentage of what I made before, [\u2026] or will I get a percentage of what my actual salary is?\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Evans said he will take what he called a \u201cshotgun approach,\u201d applying to positions inside and outside Queen\u2019s in an effort to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

Tags<\/p>\n

\n CUPE<\/a>, CUPE Local 254<\/a>, EI<\/a>, FAS<\/a>, Layoff<\/a> <\/p>\n

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and\/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following layoffs in July, an employee from the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS) has been bumped from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[72,61,60,150],"class_list":["post-19946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jobs","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jobs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}