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The St. Jerome’s contract academic staff unit ratified their new three-year agreement last month. The overall theme of their bargaining campaign was fairness and dignity for contract academic staff. The outcome was successful, with significant improvements to the seniority system, longer job contracts of up to two years, access to new benefits and leaves, higher Record of Employment (ROE) hours per course for Employment Insurance (EI) reporting purposes, new compensation for training and service, and new supports for teaching, research, and professional development. The agreement also includes a reopener clause in the case that Bill 124 is repealed or successfully challenged.
 
On job security, members can now accumulate seniority points and earn seniority status more quickly, with the elimination of the one point per academic year cap. A member can achieve seniority status in two years (from four), while the expiry window for seniority points is expanded from three to six years. The new agreement also includes multiple contract commitments of up to 24 months, and a past practice of offering eight-month contracts where feasible will be reinstated. Furthermore, if a member teaches six courses per year over three years, the Dean must consider appointing that member to a definite term appointment in the full-time bargaining unit.
 
On pensions, members who hold multiple contract commitments and meet the University of Waterloo Pension eligibility requirements are now eligible. Pay in lieu of health benefits equivalent to three per cent of base salary for members who teach at least one course per term for three consecutive terms has also been secured. Members are also now eligible for paid sick leave of up to two weeks, as well as have access to the employee and family assistance plan. Record of Employment hours will be increased from 180 hours to 235 hours per course. As the Bill 124 moderation applied for term of the agreement, a one per cent increase per year was applied to stipends.
 
New forms of compensation for service were negotiated, as well as a new Contract Academic Staff (CAS) Fellowship Program for members with seniority status. The Fellowship Program allows a member to pursue research, course development, professional development, or any other activity of benefit to the member and the university, while receiving a stipend. Professional Expense Reimbursement (PER) funds are increased by $50 to $200 per course. In consultation with the union, members may also negotiate compensation for new on-campus course developments and for course updates.

The King’s University College Faculty Association (KUCFA) ratified a new two-year agreement in September. Gains were made on all KUCFA’s goals related to equity, fair compensation, workload fairness, and meaningful collegial governance.

Equity gains were made for Indigenous faculty and retirees. Indigenous-identifying faculty will be evaluated according to criteria that recognizes Indigenous ways of knowing and Indigenous knowledge with respect to teaching, scholarship, service, and research. Retirees who had held a full-time position for at least five years at the rank of either Associate or Full Professor are now eligible for Professor Emeritus/Emerita Designation. Entitlements include continued access to the e-mail address they had prior to retirement and full library privileges.

On workload, members in their first year of appointment to a full-time tenure track position have a reduced teaching load of two full course equivalents (as opposed to 2.5 for other faculty). With respect to teaching mode of delivery, the collective agreement now has a provision that teaching duties will normally be performed in person. However, online or asynchronous delivery for program integrity can be requested by Schools and academic departments, subject to the Dean’s discretion. Limited-Term Appointments (LTAs) are now expected to engage in scholarly and professional activities.

On governance, KUCFA can now negotiate a new or amended policy or practice discussed at the Joint Consultative Committee where the policy is determined to affect the terms and conditions of employment of members, prior to implementation. Improvements to the grievance procedures involve ensuring that KUCFA has carriage of all grievances. Language around financial exigency and program redundancy has been strengthened.

On compensation, King’s was still under one year of moderation. In each of the two years of the agreement, there is a one per cent ATB increase to salaries, as well as to Progress-Through-the-Ranks (PTR) increments, and a one per cent increase to overload rates in the first year of the agreement. For 2023-2024 there will be an additional one-time increase of $5,000 on the base salary to address the comparator wage gap. KUCFA also negotiated a wage re-opener clause for 2023-24 in the case that Bill 124 is repealed or amended.

On pension and benefits, the King’s Pension Plan Committee is instructed to make a formal recommendation to the parties by March 31st, 2023, regarding the transfer of the King’s Defined Benefit (DB) pension plan to the University Pension Plan (UPP). Group life insurance increased by $78,000 to a maximum of $438,000. Increases were also gained for hearing aids, nursing home, and mental health counseling coverage. LTAs of minimum one year now receive $4,000 per year towards the purchase of a benefits package in place of the new faculty start-up benefit. New full-time LTAs with contracts of three years are now eligible for moving expenses. Professional Expense Reimbursement (PER) funds increased by one per cent in each year of the agreement.

Through the Salary Anomaly Study established in the previous agreement, a standardized set of criteria for the determination of experience credits for full-time faculty has been set up as an appendix in the collective agreement.

Queen’s University Faculty Association (QUFA) members are getting ready to step up their job action as the bargaining team has been frustrated with slow progress at the table. Highlighting the disrespect members are feeling from Queen’s University administration, particularly on equity issues, job security for adjuncts, intellectual property and research funding, the theme is “Disrespected.”

Members are optimistic this show of solidarity will encourage the bargaining team and ensure administration comes to the table ready to talk and engage on these important issues. For Fair Employment Week, adjunct QUFA members hosted an information table on campus to draw the Queen’s community’s attention to these important issues.

Members of the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA) and Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association (WLUFA) part-time unit have given their bargaining teams resounding strike mandates. UWOFA members voted 91 per cent in favour and WLUFA contract faculty voted 95.4 per cent in favour of authorizing their respective bargaining and Executive teams to call for strike action if negotiations at the universities reach an impasse.

UWOFA has been bargaining since the summer and is now in conciliation trying to reach a fair deal that rewards and recognizes faculty effort, provides equitable workloads, enhanced health and wellness, and improves job security for contract faculty. The WLUFA team is seeking to improve job security, compensation, and benefits for precariously employed faculty this round.

Three OCUFA member organizations ratified new agreements in recent months:

Lakehead University

The Lakehead University Faculty Association (LUFA) ratified a new agreement at the end of July. Still under the shadow of the compensation restraint imposed by Bill 124, the negotiating team focused on bargaining for a one-year deal and made some significant gains on the priorities identified through a member survey.

On the longstanding priority of pension reforms, the parties agreed to switch to CAAT for future service beginning January 1st, 2023. Benefits improvements include a removal in the inequity in retiree benefits and an increase in the number of compassionate leave days from three to five. Professional Expenses Reimbursement amounts have been increased for Faculty, Librarians, Continuing Lecturers, and Levels 2 and 3 Contract Lecturers. Under Bill 124 restraint, all available compensation has been increased by one per cent.

In other changes, several Letters of Understanding have been moved into the relevant sections of the agreement, including language related to Teaching-Focused Faculty. Progress-Through-the-Ranks (PTR) requirements for Teaching-Focused Faculty have been updated to match PTR language for tenure-stream appointments. The eligibility for Right of First Refusal for Contract Lecturers has been lowered from three to two years.

The agreement also saw equity-related language changes, incorporating new equity, diversity, and inclusion language and changing some existing language to be more inclusive.

Algoma University

In mid-August, Part-Time Contract Faculty at Algoma University, represented by OPSEU Local 685, reached a new three-year agreement after a process that took several months.

Negotiating after the end of the moderation period imposed by Bill 124, members gained Across-The-Board (ATB) increases of three per cent effective July 1st, 2022, 2.5 per cent effective September 1st, 2023, and 2.5 per cent effective September 1st, 2024. In addition, a one-time wage increase of seven per cent will be applied to instructors’ wage grid salary rates on January 1st, 2023 to coincide with changes to Marking and Grading and Distance Education compensation.

Effective January 1st, 2023, there will be an increase in the marking and grading assistance from the current rate of $250 for classes of over 42 students plus $10 per student over 50 to $95 per student over 40; this will apply to every mode of delivery, including Distance Education, (with the exception of reading courses) and will replace the current distance education stipend. For classes of 100 or more students, the University reserves the right to assign paid marking/grading assistance.

Other gains include an increase in the tuition fee waiver from one three-credit course to two three-credit courses for every three-credit course taught; an increase to $36 per hour (previously $34) inclusive of vacation pay for Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) responsibilities and mandatory work assignments (prorated in 15 min. increments); and increased time to file grievances. The preamble to the collective agreement will now contain a land acknowledgement.

Osgoode Hall

At the end of August, members of the Osgoode Hall Faculty Association (OHFA) ratified a new three-year collective agreement with gains on several fronts.

Under restraint imposed by Bill 124, the agreement contains ATB and stipend increases of one per cent per year. It also contains a commitment to a Bill 124 reopener. The salary anomalies exercise will continue, with a one per cent increase per year to the $16,000 anomaly fund available annually.

Members will see several increases in benefits: inclusion of psychotherapists, psychoanalysts and social workers under psychological services; coverage of medical marijuana of up to $1,500 per year; and an increase in the caps for vision care, vaccine coverage, global paramedical services, dental care, hearing aids, and prosthetics.

Members will also receive increases in the conference travel fund, the computer renewal program, and professional expense reimbursement as part of professional and work-related benefits. Effective July 1st, 2023, the number of faculty awarded one (1) high enrollment teaching credit hour annually will increase from 12 to 14. The number of research release fellowships (granting tenured faculty a semester free of teaching) was increased from four to five.

The agreement includes a program for Equity-Focused Appointments under which one candidate who self-identifies as Indigenous or as a Black person of African descent will be recruited for a tenure-stream position. The appointment will be part of the regular annual appointments exercise, with the potential for additional incentive funding to be provided by the Provost & Vice-President Academic at their discretion.

The agreement contains a commitment to complement reporting under which the Dean will continue to provide timely reporting on an annual basis to Faculty Council on the current number of tenure stream faculty, authorizations for new appointments, updates on recruitment, pending arrivals, and the aggregate of any pending departures known to the University.

Under a Voluntary Retirement Plan, faculty may take a 12-month sabbatical at 100 per cent of academic base salary, immediately following which they will retire from the University, provided they do so: (a) (i) within five years of reaching their normal retirement date, and (ii) have accrued at least five years of sabbatical credit; OR (b) (i) up to ten years past their normal retirement date, and (ii) have accrued at least four years of sabbatical credit.

In addition, as part of a voluntary separation agreement, faculty will be given the opportunity to receive a lump sum retiring allowance or a lump sum retiring allowance and one-time senior scholar research and scholarly activity fund on their retirement.