1 — OBJECTIVE
In order that members of the University community and other interested parties can have confidence that Mount Allison makes the best possible appointments and treats all its employees fairly, the University establishes this policy to provide that reasonable precautions are taken to guard against favouritism in hiring and in other employment-related decisions.
2 — POLICY
2.1 Favouritism may occur, or may be perceived to occur, when an employee, in making a decision concerning the employment of another person, has a conflict of interest. For the purposes of this policy a person has a conflict of interest when they have a personal interest in or might reasonably be perceived to have a personal interest in a decision.
2.2 Whenever there is such a conflict as defined above, the employee with the conflict must have no further involvement in the matter and must inform their department head of the conflict. The department head must in turn inform the President or the appropriate Vice-President, depending on which of these officers is responsible for the department.
2.3 In the case of hiring decisions, the President or the Vice-President, as the case may be, shall decide whether an offer of employment will be made, taking into account all relevant circumstances including whether a reasonable search has been made, the nature of the work to be done, the qualifications of the potential appointee and whether the potential appointee is likely to be the best available person for the job.
2.4 In the case of other employment-related decisions, such as salary adjustments, promotions, evaluations and supervision, unless a collective agreement provides otherwise, or unless the circumstances (for example, the supervision of a grant employee by the grant holder) do not permit this to happen, the President or Vice-President must ensure that the employee with the conflict does not make the employment-related decision.
2.5 In the case where the employee with the conflict must be involved in making an employment-related decision and except when it would be a violation of a collective agreement to do so, the President or Vice-President must approve at the time the conflict is declared a mechanism for monitoring the decision-making process to ensure as much as possible that the decision is made in the best interest of the University.
2.6 It is the responsibility of the President or Vice-President to keep records of all cases handled under this policy