November 19 QUFA Fact Sheet to Council

QUFA Says NO to Salary Reductions

What is being proposed?

Principal Woolf has requested that QUFA members consider opening the Collective Agreement and accept a 2% reduction in scale for 2010-2011. This concession, reducing scale from 3.2% to 1.2%, could save the University approximately $2.2M next year and would represent a permanent reduction of salary into the future.

Background

Queen's employees are already paying for poor financial decisions made by the Board of Trustees. The projected total operating expenses at Queen's for 2009-10 are $360.7M. The estimated budget shortfall for the 2009-10 Operating Budget approved by the Board of Trustees is $8.3M. This is the projected budget deficit, it remains to be seen what the actual figure will be. A significant proportion of that deficit is accounted for by the debt financing of recent building projects and QUASAR.

What are QUFA Members already contributing?

At least $6-$7M for the 54 full-time faculty who are expected to retire or resign between 2009-13. We have already lost 19 full-time positions between 2007/08 and 2008/09. At the same time the enrolment of full-time students increased from 16,623 to 17,421.
$2M in anomalies monies not paid out to Members. Administration is three years behind in settling anomalies that would address pay inequities for our Members. This amount represents a conservative estimate, and while the money earns interest for the University, Administration will not pay this interest to our Members on their retroactive pay.
10% (approximately) of our full-time faculty members hold research chairs with reduced teaching loads. Although these are an important marker of our success in research, they are often not compensated for by temporary positions to cover teaching and administrative duties. This reduced teaching is not properly taken into account when calculating faculty to student ratios.
Reduction or elimination of Term Adjuncts and Teaching Assistants due to departmental budget cuts.
Dramatic increases in class sizes.
Fewer people to take on service commitments.

How would this proposal affect the salaries of QUFA members?

The Principal has suggested reducing scale by 2%. This would have a significant and long lasting impact on lifetime earnings. For example, assume that someone is earning $100,000 and assume that after giving back 2% in scale for 2010-2011, the scale increase for the next seven years is 3%. By the end of the eighth year this individual would have received $17,780 less than what they would have received if the 2% scale had not been forfeited in 2010.

How could this proposal affect the current budget exercise?

Principal Woolf has suggested that 1% of the reduction in scale will go directly to offset the current deficit with the additional 1% of the reduction in scale directed to each Member's unit or department. Our analysis indicates that this will generate a relatively small amount of revenue to offset the massive cuts to departmental budgets in the exercise currently underway, especially for the smaller most vulnerable departments.

In the end, the effect on individual departments of QUFA Members giving up 2% of their salary will be very small. For example, the currently planned three-year budget cuts to departments in the Faculty of Arts & Sciences are 12.5% of total departmental budgets. Only 1% of the 2% salary cuts being asked for will be returned to the individuals' departments, representing approximately 0.8-0.9% of departmental budgets in 2010/11 and presumably beyond that. At the moment we do not know what the future holds.

What is happening elsewhere in the province?

The provincial government is talking very seriously about imposing unpaid days (Dalton days) on employees in the public sector. Our experience with "Rae days" in the 1990s indicates that the impact of these unpaid days on future earnings could be substantive. The Principal's current proposal would simply compound this.

There have been three recent settlements at universities that have come in at around 2.5-3.0%. Other recent settlements in the broader public sector have been in a similar range. Five other Ontario universities are currently in bargaining with ten others slated to begin bargaining next year. Agreeing to reduce our scale increase in 2010-11 to 1.2% would have a significant negative impact on those negotiations. We are affiliated with provincial (OCUFA) and national (CAUT) organizations. As a union we owe it to our colleagues across the province and country to provide leadership in the struggle to preserve both the quality of university education and the working conditions of academic staff.

Where we stand

QUFA has a responsibility to participate in solving the issues facing all QUFA members in ways that protect the core mission of the University: teaching and research. We see it as vital that we work to defend our rights to decent working conditions and fair salaries, and oppose the dismantling of Queen's programs under the threat of budget cuts.

What is QUFA willing to do?

We are willing to work in a productive and collegial way with the Administration to
Develop retirement packages for all members
Resolve the outstanding anomalies
Ensure that our pension plan is secure and fully funded
Improve our current salary model
Facilitate constructive and equitable mechanisms for conserving resources
Assist in developing an exit plan from the current financial difficulties facing Queen's