Term Employee Guide 2025
Article 13 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) governs Term Positions and Term employment standards.
Term (or contract positions) are funded in two ways; base funding - from the universities direct budget or non base funding - external funding often gained from grants, donations, etc.
*Note: if the position is funded by both external and internal funding sources please contact the union.
Only term employees where the position is funded from the university's base budget are eligible for Conversion. Conversion occurs three (3) years from the anniversary date (date of hire). The university has the option to convert or close the position (typically the employer converts to FTCE)
Notice of extension or early termination requires 2 weeks notice for employees with less than 12 months of continuous service
*a term position of 4 months or less can be terminated with 2 weeks notice and may not grieve
Employees with more than 12 months of continuous service will receive 8 weeks notice of early termination or extension, but no notice will be provided if the employer honours the end date outlined in the offer letter
*Tip: The union advises you to contact your manager and/HR ~3 months prior to the end of your contract end date to get confirmation of your extension or termination
Employees with 12 months of continuous service or above (meaning under the same job title and department) are eligible for the TMU Pension Plan
*Tip: you can join any time after 12 months and are eligible to buy-back any time you were eligible to be in the pension plan but chose not to join it
*Notice is not given for “natural” end of contracts, meaning where the employer does not intend to extend or renew the contract and will honour the end date specified in the initial offer letter.
After 4 months of continuous service will be considered as an “internal applicant” and may apply to internal job postings
Term employees with 2 or more years of continuous service continue to have internal applicant status for two months after expiration of their contract
Term employees with 3-6 years of continuous service are eligible for severance under specified conditions, while term employees with 6 or more years of continuous service are eligible for severance under the same conditions (Article 18) as full-time career employees (FTCE)
Term employees with 4 to 12 months of continuous service accrue 1 sick day per month, up to 12 days and one vacation day per month
Term employees with less than 4 months continuous service are not eligible for benefits or pension
Term employees with more than 4 but less than 12 months are eligible for benefits as follows:
100% of premiums for semi private coverage, dental plan, and extended health benefits (however there will be a 60/40 co insurance factor applied to health benefit claims)
Term employees with 12 months or more are eligible for full benefits coverage under Article 32
Eligible to participate in the TMU Retirement Pension plan after 12 months of completed continuous service
Or if the employee has worked 24 consecutive months with at least 700 hundred accumulated hours of service or earnings of at least 35% of years maximum pensionable earnings (in each year of service)
Option to purchase time (prior service not calculated in the to date pension contribution)
All employees are entitled to overtime pay (default) or compensatory time (upon agreement) as outlined in article 26 of the CBA. All overtime must be approved in advance, in writing and entered into the ehr system.
2 weeks notice if contract is extended beyond end date
can be terminated at any time
not entitled to an official job description
not entitled to grieve termination unless related to a prohibited ground
(limited) Benefits coverage see article 13.05 of the CBA
Vacation accural of 1 day per month
entitled to an offical Job Description
Notice of extension or early end of contract 2 weeks prior to natural end date
Full benefits
pension eligibility
Notice of extension or early end of contract 8 weeks prior to natural end date
Vacation accrual as per article 10.01(a) of the CBA
Regular sick dates as per article 31.01 of the CBA
Tuition Waiver
Severance+
All of the benefits that have been defined above hold true plus
at 2 years upon end of contract will receive severance plus internal applicant status for 2 months after end of contract
Base funded positions are eligible for conversion to FTCE within 2 months of the 3 year anniversary (date of hire)
at 6 years receive 3 weeks per year of service (up to 42 weeks) as severance