Members of the X/Ryerson Faculty Association (XRFA) have just ratified a three-year collective agreement that represents significant gains on equity, Indigenous complement, librarian rights, and benefits.
The university has allocated $500,000 dollars for salary anomalies, with $200,000 of that specifically for gender anomalies. A Joint Committee on Equity in Salary will be created to make recommendations on how to address the systemic roots of salary discrimination on a go-forward basis. Further, every hiring, tenure, and promotion committee is now required to include an Equity Advocate elected/selected to ensure that the process meets EDI goals.
The number of Indigenous faculty, professional counsellors, and librarians will be increased, with new language to facilitate increased hiring and improve the experiences of Indigenous faculty, professional counsellors, and librarians.
Librarians have achieved better recognition of their teaching duties and workload, clearer criteria for appointment ranks, and parity with faculty on sabbatical leaves and discipline, redundancy, financial exigency, and layoffs.
Benefits have increased by $322,000 in each year of the collective agreement and have been expanded to cover numerous new services and drugs. In addition, the university will administer a one-time fund of $40,000 for members who require additional funding for travel, accommodation, and/or other expenses related to gender affirmation surgery that are not already covered under the new gender affirmation benefit.
A One-time Voluntary Incentive Program, determined through an arbitration award in 2021, allowed members who met the eligibility requirements the option of retiring by August 31, 2021 with one year’s salary. Also, a phased-in retirement program for full-time faculty members, career professional counsellors, and career librarians will allow members to transition into retirement over a two-year period.