• Work cannot begin without a signed Offer of Employment from the prospective employees. Supervisors and/or Department representatives must provide the relevant information about each appointment to enable the HR RP Team to create or modify a contract. 
• Eligible prospective employees will be asked to sign the Offer of Employment (via DocuSign) that contains these terms, to confirm them as SFU employees.
• The Supervisor’s grant will be responsible for CPP, EI, WCB, EHT.
• Supervisors must offer health and dental coverage as of April 1st, 2026 (employer portion of benefits is 75%, the RA pays 25%). As of April 1st, 2026, Extended Health and Dental benefits are considered non-discretionary. 
• The TSSU Collective agreement governs the employment practices for appointing, re-appointing, changing the terms of employment or ending an appointment early. Please see summary of requirements for RA's here. 
• Supervisors are expected to provide department onboarding, training, supervisory duties, as well as and performance management.
• HR RPT processes appointments, maintains employee files and provides support to Supervisors, departments and research employees as needed. 

The Supervisor is responsible for defining the scope of work and specific duties the RA will be expected to perform for the duration of the appointment.

Use language to show the complexity of the task, as well as the level of independence, supervision, direction & responsibility e.g.: assists, responsible for, supports, conducts, etc.

The PAF offers a space for capturing what work is to be performed; this information will be used to populate the Duties Performed section of the appointment letter. Duties may be typed or pasted from another source. The Supervisor may attach a Word document with a list of duties or the Duties Checklist spreadsheet.

A signed appointment letter must be recieved by HR RPT before work can begin.

The Supervisor or a department representative capture the terms agreed to between the Supervisor and the prospective employee on the PAF. 

These terms and conditions will be entered into an SFU-approved Offer of Employment by HR RPT; and include:

• duties to be performed
• start and end date
• pay rate 
• number of weeks of vacation or % vacation pay
• any other terms and conditions agreed to by the Supervisor and employee

An appointment letter will be emailed to the prospective employee via DocuSign (with a copy to the Department, PI and TSSU), asking the employee to sign and return the appointment letter, confidentiality agreement, as well as a TSSU union dues form.

Employee information will be entered into myINFO (HR RPT maintains new employee files).

Departments and Supervisors will be copied when the employee receives their Offer of Employment, however the following query may be used to review the status of appointments in myINFO: SFUDA_RA_ADMINISTER_EES.

Department onboarding, training, and orientation are the Supervisor’s responsibility.

The cost of statutory and discretionary benefits will continue to be funded by the respective grants, and these should be considered when budgeting. A budget planning calculator has been created to facilitate this.

Rates of pay are determined by the Supervisor but must meet BC’s minimum wage, until April 1st, 2026 when the minimum hourly rate must be at least $24.74/hr. 

Use this Calculator to estimate:

• the minimum amount of time required and/or 
• the cost to the grant.

Vacation 

Employees should be encouraged to take their vacation time in order to refresh and recharge.

ESA requires the provision of vacation time and/or pay; the amount you can offer is flexible but it must meet the ESA minimum. 

HOURLY EMPLOYEE VACATION

• Minimum of 4% in lieu of vacation will be paid in addition to the employee's hourly rate.
• There is no requirement for employees to take time off and any vacation time taken would be without pay. 
• No vacation payout will be required at the end of the appointment.

SALARIED EMPLOYEE VACATION

• Minimum of 2 weeks' time off as vacation per full year of service.
  
• This two-week entitlement is pro-rated for the appointment term if the appointment is shorter than a full year and/or working part time hours. 
• Vacation must be taken within 12 months of being earned.

Vacation time earned but not taken must be paid out at the end of employment contracts (when the employment relationship ends), regardless of the reason for ending the appointment:

• If the employee has not yet taken their earned vacation time, a payout equal to the amount of vacation time owing (earned but not taken) will be added to their last pay.
• This payout is an expense to the grant.
• A supervisor may talk to the employee about taking any remaining vacation before the end of the contract. This may reduce the payment to the employee.
• If the end date of the employee’s current contract is extended, the employment relationship continues and their vacation can carry forward. Note the potential for significant expense if too much unused vacation time accrues.
• According to BC’s Employment Standards Act, the employee cannot skip taking vacation time and just receive vacation pay i.e. they may not choose to receive a payout instead of taking their earned vacation time.  

Supervisors must continue to track vacation time taken, to limit the risk of overpayment.

Benefits

STATUTORY BENEFITS

The Supervisor is responsible for the cost of statutory benefits. The cost is approximately 11% of the gross salary. This amount is in addition to the budgeted salary. It is intended to cover:

• Canada Pension Plan (CPP - 5.95%)
• Employment Insurance (Employee portion is 1.63% - employer is 1.4 times the employee rate which equates to EI - 2.28%)
• Workers Compensation (WCB - 0.25%)
• Employer Health Tax (EHT - 1.95%)  

NON-DISCRETIONARY BENEFITS AS OF APRIL 1st, 2026

As of April 1st, 2026, Extended Health and Dental benefits are considered a mandatory expense to research grants and are therefore non-discretionary. The employer's portion of Extended Health and Dental benefits is approx. 5.96% of the gross salary)

Extended Health & Dental benefits:

•    The Supervisor is responsible for 75% of the cost, the RA must pay the other 25%.
•    If an RA is offered discretionary benefits, these will be captured in the offer of employment.

Find a summary of benefits here.

The additional funding information boxes on the PAF reduces the number of PAFs required – all project numbers can be captured on a single PAF.

It is no longer necessary to end an appointment then re-appoint in order to change the funding source – changes to funding sources may be made quickly with the newly revised PAF (see Changing the Funding Source tab).

It is still necessary for the grant’s signing authority to sign the PAF.

In March of 2025, the TSSU successfully ratified the first collective agreement for the Research Assistants at SFU which now guides the employment practices for this group. This is in addition to the provincial Employment Standards Act and SFU’s policies.

BC’s Employment Standards Act defines employer responsibilities and employee rights and entitlements, including:

• Documentation of terms and conditions of employment
• Provision of statutory benefits, including coverage for CPP, EI, WCB and EHT, as well as vacation pay
• The BC Employment Standards Guide offers explanations and examples of employment requirements including payment of overtime and statutory holiday pay
• SFU policies and procedures can be found here
• The TSSU Collective Agreement and employment provisions can be found on the LR website