On Thursday, February 14th, the union’s Labour-Management Committee met with the employer to discuss a full agenda of issues for Units 1, 2, and 3.
While follow-up will be necessary for many items, the employer’s approach to regular items was largely productive. However, the employer continues to refuse to engage meaningfully with the ongoing problems with remediation. More than six months after all three units returned to work, the employer will still not divulge the precise guidelines — if there are any — used to determine what workload forms were approved or denied. They claim that the process must remain decentralized, which accounts for the lack of consistency between departments. The union-side representatives raised the objection that workers under a single contract should not be held to different standards across departments. Unit 1 also raised the objection that the stipulations agreed to by Unit 2, for example, the relevance of a number of students remaining, should not apply, as Units 1 and 3 did not agree to those terms. In the absence of a Memorandum of Settlement, it does not follow that the logic and terms of our contracts would be significantly altered by remediation. It seems obvious that these issues will have to be resolved through the grievance process, as there is no willingness to discuss and reach agreement collaboratively. If members were not paid in full for the work they completed during the remediation period they should complete the pay discrepancy survey, found here: https://form.jotform.com/82986576938280, and attach all relevant documentation to assist staff in filing a grievance on their behalf. In the meantime, we were assured that new remediation workload forms will continue to be accepted.
Other issues which were discussed are separated by unit below.
All Units
- Proofs of the new collective agreements should be ready in a few weeks
- 6% vacation pay for members with more than 5 years of service: no clear answer yet on how this will be calculated, despite the employer having had six months to figure it out
- Archive postings are missing from the CUPE Jobs site since 2015: the employer will look into it
- Making work histories available online: the employer will follow up with IT. The union suggested we reactivate the IT Focus Group
Unit 1
- Retroactive pay increase (2.1% for 2017-18 and 2.2% for Fall 2018): should be included in the February pay cycle
- Unit 1 members being directed to the Unit 2 blanket application online when logging in with their employee account: the employer will fix this, and there was talk of messaging to graduate programs in case Unit 1 members mistakenly submitted Unit 2 applications
- Opting-in to getting the minimum guarantee as summer funding instead of the fellowship: the employer does not have infrastructure set up; we reminded them that they had said it would be possible during bargaining and that it needs to be figured out quickly in order to be fully functional for an opt-in deadline in August.
Unit 2
- Continuing Sessional Standing Program (CSSP):
- The CSSP Guarantee Payout report for 2017-18 will be sent to the union once it is ready
- Members who applied to the CSSP but were not eligible due to the list not being updated before the blanket application deadline should not encounter any problems, as the system does not delete applications
- The employer will look into departments not participating in the CSSP
- PER irregularities and Concur account deactivations: PER is too big of a problem to be resolved at the level of Faculty Relations; the union is invited to send someone to meet with Finance to reconfigure how PER claims are handled
- Increasing difficulties applying for T2200 forms: employer agrees it should be simplified and more accessible, will look into it
Unit 3
- Retroactive pay increase (2.1% for 2017-18 and 2.2% for Fall 2018): should be included in the February pay cycle
- Implementation of the GA Assignment Protocol (incentive fund for Principal Investigators to hire GAs): the employer has a draft policy ready, which the union received over the weekend and is closely reviewing
The next LMC meeting is scheduled for March 15 at noon. Hopefully, we will have more concrete answers to many of the above issues at that time.