November 2022

Eligible Clinical Faculty members teaching in the MD Programs invoice for On Call teaching

Please note that invoices for On-Call teaching payments for the period of July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 must be received by the respective Medical Program by December 31, 2022. Please refer to the submission instructions on page two of the On-Call Teaching Invoice Template.

HR Roundtable: UBC Investigations Office

A reminder that there will be an HR Roundtable for an opportunity to meet and speak with Carly Stanhope, Director, Investigations Office to discuss issues around sexual misconduct and discrimination on Wednesday, December 7^th at 10:30am – 12:00pm. More information on this Roundtable session can be found here. Please RSVP via this link, by Wednesday, November 30, 2022, and indicate on the form if you have any specific questions or cases you would like to go through. If there are specific cases or questions you would like to discuss please prepare information to bring to the session, for sharing and discussion. Please feel free to forward the invitation to anyone who may be interested in your unit.

Offer Letter Template

Updates have been made to offer letters for faculty, postdoctoral fellows and clinical fellows. Many of the updates are a result of changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations with the key ones being as follows:

Foreign worker language was updated to include the requirement to inform foreign workers of their rights.
Foreign worker language updated for those appointments that obtain a work permit under an LMIA Exemption. Refer to the article on Protections for Foreign Workers for more information (please see the Protection for Foreign Workers topic below).
Implied Status changed to Maintained Status in renewal letters.
The tenure Stream letter has been updated to reflect the PIRL section could be optional for departments who are not in the position to support a PIRL application.
The Payroll Direct Deposit form is included in letters for paid appointments.
New offer letters for Visiting Faculty (Foreign & Domestic) are being created.

Please ensure that your offer letters for Postdoctoral Research Fellows, Research Associates, and some term positions are prepared in the current template from the Faculty Relations page. The FoM Tenure-stream, FoM Term faculty, and Clinical Fellow offer letter templates will also be updated. Please stay tuned for upcoming announcements.

Protection for Foreign Workers

In light of the recent amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, please read the following information carefully:

Faculty and Postdoctoral Fellow offer letters have been updated to include information on their employee rights and links to information on the Government of Canada website. Note there are two separate links, one of which is for those who enter Canada on a LMIA exempt work permit and the other is for those under an LMIA.
When administrators complete the Offer of Employment (OOE) in the Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Employer Portal, they are required to attest to a few statements, such as an offer of employment has been offered to and accepted by the foreign worker. This means that the offer letter can no longer contain the OOE-A Number. It must be provided after the foreign worker has provided a copy of their signed & accepted offer letter.
Once an administrator receives a copy of the offer letter accepted by the foreign worker then the OOE can be entered in the IRCC Employer Portal and they will subsequently need to provide the A-Number to the foreign worker via the LMIA-Exemption Offer Number Confirmation Letter.
The normal practice of administrators entering the OOE for Postdoctoral Fellows and Visitors Administrators remains unchanged. Please ensure you are following the IRCC Offer of Employment– Completion Guide for Postdoc & Visitor Appointments. Once the OOE A-Number has been finalized, please use the new template letter to provide the A-Number to the foreign worker. Please copy the UBC HR Immigration Team (HR Immigration Help – UBCV or Trisha Kasawski – UBCO) on your communication so that they may follow up with case-specific work permit application instructions. Please always include a summary for the immigration team as follows:

“For the immigration team, Dr. [Insert Full Legal Name] is a citizen of [insert country] currently residing in [insert country of residence]. They will be a [Post-Doctoral Fellow/Visiting Professor] at UBC as of December 15, 2022.”

Faculty Relations will continue to enter the OOEs for all other appointments and will provide the A-Number to the UBC Immigration team who will send an email to the foreign hires with the documentation and case-specific work permit application instructions.
Please refer to the Faculty Relations Updates page for full details.

Mandatory Isolation Pay Removed

Effective October 1, 2022, the Government of Canada is removing the following requirements for travelers entering Canada:

submit public health information through the ArriveCAN app or website;
provide proof of vaccination;
undergo pre- or on-arrival testing;
carry out COVID-19-related quarantine or isolation;
monitor and report if they develop signs or symptoms of COVID-19 upon arriving to Canada.

Workday will be updated to remove the Covid-19 isolation requirements including the requirement to provide isolation pay.

Vacation Tracking on Workday

Please be reminded that vacation tracking for faculty and postdoctoral appointments has not been implemented in Workday. Should units wish to track vacation for either of these groups they will need to do so outside of Workday.

Work Location for Postdoctoral Fellows & Research Associates

It is expected that the primary work location for UBC Research Associates and Postdoctoral Fellows is a UBC location. As applicable, supervisors may provide flexibility for their researchers to work off campus within BC in a manner consistent with UBC’s Hybrid Work Program. There are a number of reasons driving this expectation, including impact and risk with respect to benefits coverage, immigration, Worksafe legislation, taxation, and employment laws. Please contact FoM Faculty HR for further discussion and guidance should your unit have an exceptional situation requiring deeper exploration.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Earnings

It is recommended that Postdocs’ annual salary is in line with the annual award amounts provided by the Tri-Agencies (CIHR, NSERC & SSHRC). Please take this and the living wage for Vancouver into consideration when determining a salary for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Please refer to Faculty Relations website for more information about Postdoctoral Research Fellows. In general, a Postdoc should not be unpaid. If they are funded through external funding, they should be appointed as a Postdoc receiving Non-University Funds (NUF) and should not be treated as unpaid Postdocs. For further guidance, please contact FoM Faculty HR.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Salary Increases

Please be reminded that salary increases for eligible Postdocs are normally processed once per year on appointment anniversary. When salaries need to increase as a result of additional duties that are over and above their normal responsibilities, please contact FoM Faculty HR if the increase is above 20%. The unit has the discretion to facilitate salary increases ensuring that there is equity in the process. If the salary increase is for a foreign Postdoc, please see the next section below.

IRCC Offer of Employment for a Postdoctoral Fellow who is a Foreign National and UBC Offer Letter

As you know, a Postdoc who is a foreign national will require a new work permit for appointments, reappointments and significant compensation changes prior to these events taking place. Please consult with FoM Faculty HR as required.

In these events, please ensure that the following steps are being adhered to:

Step 1: Have the new offer letter or addendum fully signed by the Department Head/School Director and the Postdoctoral Fellow.

Step 2: Unit administrators apply for LMIA exemption via the IRCC Employer portal (see above instructions for IRCC Offer of Employment– Completion Guide for Postdoc & Visitor Appointments) and the details from the new offer letter or addendum are used to input data on the Employer Portal. It is important that the details entered in the Employer Portal match exactly what was on the new offer letter.

Step 3: When a new work permit tied to the LMIA exemption approved by IRCC becomes available, please include this item along with the new offer letter/addendum that go into the Workday BP (Hire, Reappointment or Compensation Change BP). Please refer to FR’s checklist online for all documents required in appointing/reappointing a Postdoc.

Please be reminded that only our UBC-certified immigration consultants can provide immigration advice. If there are immigration concerns on your Postdoc, you can contact UBC Immigrations directly at HR ImmigrationHelp Immigration.help@ubc.ca.

Affiliate Faculty Guidelines

There is a new Affiliate Faculty Guidelines document that was approved on March 15, 2022 by the FoM Faculty Executive. This new Guidelines document replaces the Policy and the Affiliate Ranks Process documents dated 2008, and it only pertains to Affiliate Faculty Members hired within the Faculty of Medicine Distributed Programs. If your unit needs further assistance, please contact FoM Faculty HR.

FOM Workday HR CoP Update

Please see attached for October FoM Workday HR Community of Practice (CoP) updates and reminders.

New hires must re-download vaccine passport for verification

Please see the attached instructions regarding vaccine passports that will need to be re-downloaded to ensure that the QR codes are valid. Please note that proof of vaccination must be provided prior to the employment start date.

Announcements Sidebar