| Queen's University Faculty Association Newsletter |
QUFACTS | |
| PEOPLE | QUFACTS is a service to the Faculty Association of
Queen’s University to promote exchange of ideas, foster debate on issues, and inform
members about current issues related to the purpose of the association. Members are invited to submit letters (approximately 150 words) and news items for publication. Letters will be published unedited. Any modification of articles will be done in consultation with the authors. Items may be sent to the QUFA office, Room 120, Old Medical Building. |
November 1998 Volume 24, Number 2 |
| This issue was published by Editor: Mark Jones, Assistant Editor: Rhonda Clark-George, Advisor: Marvin Baer and Elaine Berman | ||
 | President's Report | ||
| Background Information on Salaries | ||
| OCUFA Report | ||
| CMCA Report | ||
| Announcements
|
President's Report (November 1998)
Dear Colleagues,
The first Collective Agreement (CA) between QUFA and Queen's will expire after April 30, 1999. According to the CA, negotiations for the second CA must commence by January 6, 1999. QUFA's preparations for bargaining are well underway. The bargaining team has been appointed, several task forces are considering key issues, and a questionnaire has been used to establish the membership's priorities.
The task forces have not yet reported, and the results of the questionnaire are not yet digested. Nevertheless, it appears that the merit system will be a significant issue for re-negotiation. Recent experience suggests that the present system consumes significant portions of administrative time, generates many individual grievances, and produces confusion among members about their performance, while doing little to enhance overall scholarly performance. According to the academic literature, these troubles may be endemic to merit-compensation schemes rather than reflecting poor design or clumsy administration. Nevertheless, they may be aggravated by some features of the Queen's system. One of these features is the potential for conflicting messages from unit heads and deans. A second is the zero-sum distribution, which too frequently requires assessors to tax average performers in order to reward high flyers. A third is the apparent inconsistency in criteria: an individual's merit rating does not depend on her performance alone, but may vary depending on the performance of the comparative group.
Paradoxically, the system may have been more tolerable in some ways when members knew less about it and there was no forum for grievances. Not only may more mysterious processes be less demoralizing, but it may be that the present demand for transparent procedures has led to more mechanical ("objective") measurements of performance. In any event, the Executive and Council will have to consider these issues before the Association can determine its negotiating position on merit.
In the meantime, several matters arising out of the existing CA have been settled, while others remain to be resolved. As the following reports in this QUFACTS indicate, the Association Grievance concerning the distribution of merit in Health Science has been resolved (although several individual grievances concerning merit in Arts and Science remain unresolved), the Principal has announced the closure of the Department of Materials and Metallurgy without an academic review by the Senate, and the Pay Review Panel has made recommendations for anomaly adjustments for 77 faculty members. Anomaly adjustments for adjuncts, librarians, and archivists have not yet been determined, but the Association expects this task to be completed as soon as possible.
Marvin Baer, President
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON
SALARIES
(by Grant Amyot)
As negotiations for the next collective agreement will begin in January, members have been called upon to express their views on our bargaining objectives in the QUFA survey. On the salary front, the situation has changed little since last year: because of government funding cutbacks, university faculty, along with most of the public sector, have seen a decline in their real salary levels in the 1990s - a decline that has significantly exceeded that suffered by the average Canadian. At Queen's, before-tax salary levels fell ca. 10% from 1991-92 to 1997-98 in real terms. For individuals, this decline is masked by annual merit/PTR increases: but this is simply movement up an escalator which is at the same time sinking deeper into the ground. Since the first post-certification increases in 1997, we have made some modest steps towards recovering the lost ground, in the order of 1-2%, but a great deal remains to be done. The major question is how much attention we should pay to the University's "ability to pay" - so long as our bargaining objectives recognize this limit, the provincial government, whose decisions on grants and fees determine the University's ability to pay, will continue to have the whip hand, and we shall have to defer the restoration of our purchasing power indefinitely. Since scale increases for the next contract will be decided by arbitration if QUFA and the University cannot agree, we must also be sure that whatever position we adopt is defensible before a neutral third party.
How far behind are our salaries?
There are various ways of assessing the level of our salaries. The primary comparison should be with similar occupations in the private sector that have not been subjected to the cutbacks of the past years. While exact matches are not possible, an authoritative study by management consultants suggests that today our counterparts in the private sector are paid ca. 25% more on average than we are. A 25% increase is also roughly what we would need to restore the purchasing power that Queen's faculty salaries had in 1975, when they reached their historic high. The same 25% increase would roughly restore faculty salaries to the share of the University's operating budget that they represented in 1991-92: since that date, regular non-medical faculty salaries and benefits have fallen from ca. 38% to ca. 30% of budgetted expenditures.(1) In other words, there seems to be a case for a significant salary increase; the contrast with comparable private-sector jobs is especially clear in the case of junior faculty.
Queen's and Other Ontario Universities
In bargaining, however, we have tended in the past to consider mainly the comparison between Queen's and the other research-intensive universities in Ontario. This criterion is in the long run circular and can never address the issue of how large university salaries should be in relation to other occupations. Nevertheless, because we have trailed our peer institutions since the 1992 imposed salary programme, parity with them has appeared a necessary short-term objective. The following table shows roughly where we stand at present (data for Western are not yet available):
Average Faculty Salaries (1997-98, age-adjusted) and 1998 Increases |
||||
| $ | Queen's = 100 | 1998 scale increase (%) | 1998 PTR,
merit, & other increases (%) |
|
| Toronto | 88,922 | 113.3 | 1.5 | 2.0* |
| Waterloo | 82,163 | 104.7 | 1.0 | 3.25 |
| Guelph | 80,215 | 102.2 | 0.6 | 3.1 |
| Ottawa | 79,371 | 101.2 | 1.6 | 2.8 |
| McMaster | 79,226 | 101.0 | 0.8 | 3.2 |
| Weighted average of above 5 | 83,626 | 106.6 | - | - |
| Queen's *Estimated |
78,462 |
100 |
1.25 |
3.0 |
| Average salaries are
age-adjusted and include all faculty with administrative duties and exclude lecturers,
those under 30, faculties of medicine (clinical and basic sciences), and affiliated
colleges. Details of the methodology can be obtained from the QUFA office. Sources: Statistics Canada for average salaries; OCUFA and APUO (Ottawa) for increases. |
||||
We are, it seems, within sight of closing the salary gap with all our comparator group except Toronto. We should note, however, that this is a moving target, and that all of these universities except Ottawa are bargaining for new agreements in 1999 (Western is still bargaining for the current year); therefore, even maintaining our present sixth-place position will require some upward movement.
Attrition in Full-Time Faculty Since 1990
Year Full-Time Faculty in Canadian Universities
1996-97 34,326
1995-96 36,007
1994-95 36,362
1993-94 36,910
1992-93 37,266
1991-92 36,845
1990-91 37,422
Source: by CAUT from Statistics Canada. Subsequent figures are not yet available.
October AGM/Board Meeting Focuses on Elections and Lobbying
Discussion focussed on the pending provincial election as OCUFA Directors and association Presidents met for the second annual combined AGM/Board meeting in Toronto, October 2-3.
Guest speakers included NDP leader Howard Hampton, who presented the NDP's position on post-secondary education and indicated that the party was ready to put $500 million back into the system. OCUFA President Deborah Flynn has also invited Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty and Premier Mike Harris to future Board meetings, prior to the election, so that they might outline their platforms on post-secondary education.
OCUFA members heard also from Ron Hikel, who works for KPMG Consultants in the Centre for Government. Hikel spoke on lobbying strategies that advocacy groups such as OCUFA can use with government and political parties. Discussion of elections and lobbying strategies will continue at the Board's next meeting, scheduled for December 4-5 in Toronto.
There were also elections to two committees: named to the Staff Relations Committee were Catherine Beattie (McMaster) and Don Dworet (Brock). Named to the Nominating Committee were Paul Satinder (Lakehead), Catherine Schryer (Waterloo), and Roman Brozowski (Nipissing). Both committees are chaired by Past President Michael Piva.
Carleton returns to OCUFA: CUASA, the Carleton University Academic Staff Association, voted overwhelmingly in a referendum on October 15 to re-affiliate with OCUFA. President Flynn welcomed Carleton back, noting that OCUFA is again "united as the provincial organization that represents the interests of all university faculty associations in Ontario."
SWC meets Nov. 20: The Status of Women Committee is scheduled to meet November 20 at the OCUFA office in Toronto. The SWC has recently made several appointments and will be up to full membership complement for the coming year. SWC Chair Marty Laurence said the committee will work on those parts of its mandate that involve providing input and participation on issues important to the OCUFA membership in general and particularly to the nearly 30 percent of the membership which is made up of women.
OCUFA Awards Information: The brochure outlining the criteria for the 1998 OCUFA Teaching and Academic Awards will be sent to local associations in the next few weeks. Deadline for receipt of submissions for possible recipients of the awards will be Friday February 19, 1999.
OCUFA, and Election Year Lobbying
On Oct. 2-3, QUFA President Marvin Baer attended OCUFA's first Board meeting for 1998-99, including a session on lobbying strategies for the year to come. In anticipation of elections, discussion focused chiefly on OCUFA's message to government and the options of local or provincial action. OCUFA views election preparations as an opportunity to influence the platforms of all three major parties. But, assuming the likelihood of a Tory re-election, OCUFA is wary of antagonizing the government and appears to be preparing to focus efforts on winning concessions. It also appears to be placing most emphasis on local lobbying prior to the calling of the election, Mr. Baer reported. OCUFA has provided lobbying materials to QUFA's Political Action Committee and was preparing a statement on lobbying strategies for the coming year. But, Mr. Baer observed, QUFA may find lobbying difficult for want of local officials with both influence and interests in post-secondary education. When the Political Action Committee met with John Gerretsen in August, his party had not as yet made any commitments to reversing Tory educational policies.
Report from the CAUT Collective Bargaining / Status of Women Conference, Regina
CAUT's joint conference on Collective Bargaining and the Status of Women (Regina, October 1-4) addressed the theme of "Equity in the New Millennium." The Queen's-QUFA Collective Agreement has come to be regarded as a model achievement in collective bargaining, particularly for its equity clauses. CAUT invited Roberta Lamb, as a representative of QUFA, to address a plenary session dedicated to Employment Equity articles; Professor Lamb spoke on the subject of innovations in QUFA's Collective Agreement. Other sessions addressed topics such as the Federal Contractors Programme and recent gains in collective bargaining across Canada. In the latter session, too, QUFA's CA was repeatedly cited as a model. On the other side, the conference considered the status of aboriginal women in Canadian universities.
Report from the Committee to Manage the Collective Agreement
Over the past several months, many issues have been brought
to the Committee to Manage the Collective Agreement (CMCA), which is the QUFA side of the
Joint Committee for Administering the Agreement (JCAA). In each case the CMCA considers
the issue independently first; in many cases all that is needed is clarification of the
Collective Agreement or more information for the Member concerned. Otherwise, the CMCA
takes the issue to the JCAA for resolution between the Parties to the Collective
Agreement. Significant resolutions of the JCAA are listed below. (The CMCA makes regular
reports on such decisions not only to the Membership, via QUFACTS, but also to
the QUFA Executive and the Council of Representatives.)
Article 14 and QNS Appointments: QUFA brought issues related to the Queen's National Scholar (QNS) appointments to the attention of the University. Among other things, QUFA reminded the University that that it was already agreed that QNS appointments must follow procedures laid out in Articles 14 and 32. QUFA noted that announcements for the QNS should make reference to the Collective Agreement and that there should be a mechanism for ensuring that the University follows proper procedures once the QNS recommendations proceed beyond the department or unit. The CMCA is awaiting the University's response.
Article 24 and the Department of Materials and Metallurgy: An initiative by the Dean of Applied Sciences to close the Department of Materials and Metallurgy has been under discussion for months in the JCAA. Over the summer, the CMCA referred the matter to the Grievance Committee with a recommendation to pursue an Association Grievance if the University did not agree to invoke Article 24 (Closure of an Academic Program or Unit for Academic Reasons).
In August, the Principal duly notified the Senate that he had concerns about the academic viability of the undergraduate program in Materials and Metallurgy. He therefore requested the establishment of an Academic Review Committee, pursuant to Article 24, to review the proposed closing of the department and undergraduate program.
Subsequently, at the October meeting of Senate, the Principal announced that the Department of Materials and Metallurgy would be closed and that the undergraduate program would be offered as a stream within the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The Principal also announced that in view of these developments, he was withdrawing his request for the establishment of a Senate Academic Review Committee.
The University has assured QUFA that it has no plans to close any other unit in the University.
Article 32 (Employment Equity): With the help of feedback from Members, the equity training workshops have been reformed. A pilot workshop was held in June. The September workshops reflected the revisions suggested by Members in general and by those who participated in the pilot workshop. The CMCA is grateful to the Members for their participation and suggestions. Approximately 125 people attended the September workshops, and reports from Members about the revised workshops have been consistently positive. The equity reporting forms were revised as well.
The York University Faculty Association, hoping to institute similar workshops to improve its Employment Equity provisions, recently sent observers to the Queen's/QUFA Equity Workshops.
The Equity Subcommittee of the JCAA has begun to meet and is proceeding with its tasks as outlined in the CA, Articles 32.7.1 and 32.7.2.
Article 34 (Workload): QUFA has now received copies of all approved workload standards. According to the CA, Articles 34.1.6 and 34.1.8, approved workload standards must be made available through faculty and departmental offices, and QUFA is to be given notice of any changes in workload standards. These documents are available in the QUFA office.
Merit in Health Sciences: QUFA's concerns regarding the distribution of merit in Health Sciences were discussed at several meetings of the JCAA. When it appeared that the issue could not be resolved at the JCAA, the CMCA sent it to the Grievance Committee with a recommendation for an Association grievance. This grievance was settled at Step 1 (see CA 15.4) and the settlement is described below.
Pension/Benefits: Renewable Adjuncts received a guarantee of access to benefits during summer months. The JCAA agreed on procedures to ensure that Renewable Adjuncts are properly informed and able to apply for such benefits.
The JCAA reached agreement also on new forms to be used for enrolling in the pension plan and for changing designated beneficiaries; the changes have to do with the definition of "spouse." All members should have received this information by early November.
Other: Other issues either resolved or still being considered by the JCAA include QUEST forms, collection of back dues, library transitions, and QUFA's access to information.
University
and QUFA Settles Association Grievance Over Merit Assessments
In accordance with Article 15 of the Collective Agreement, the University agreed in October to distribute an additional 25 merit points among bargaining-unit members in the Faculty of Health Sciences to bring their 1997-98 merit assessments closer to historic patterns of distribution. The agreement settles an association grievance filed by QUFA last summer.
Of the 25 additional points, 15 will be distributed among members who received 8 merit points each; the remaining 10 will be awarded to a portion of the members who received 9 or 10 points each. Fifteen of the 25 points will be awarded to members in the School of Nursing, the School of Rehabilitation Therapy, and the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology. Members in Health Sciences should contact QUFA if they have concerns about the fulfilment of this agreement.
Announcements and Upcoming Events:
Your QUFA Dues, assessed according to a mil rate or percentage of members' salaries, are set each year at the Spring Annual General Meeting. Currently the mil rate is 0.8% and is deducted on a monthly basis by the Queen's Compensation Department in Human Resources. Based on the 1998-99 mil rate, a bargaining unit member with a gross salary of $45,000 would pay $45,000 x 0.8= $360 per year, or $30 per month. There is a minimum yearly fee of $50.
QUFA membership fees are deductible from Total Income on your Income Tax Form (under "Annual Union, Professional or Like Dues"). Dues paid by monthly salary deduction are reported on your T4 Revenue Canada Form.
Funds collected as QUFA dues are used to pay for the costs of running the association and to pay dues to CAUT and OCUFA, which provide services (including legal services, research, and lobbying) for faculty associations in Canada and Ontario. In addition, QUFA sends a monthly payment of $5 per bargaining unit member to CAUT as a Defence Fund levy. The latter fund is especially important in years when a new agreement is being negotiated and CAUT's financial, political, and psychological support may be needed.
The Summer Work Experience Program (SWEP)
SWEP seeks jobs for undergraduate students. These jobs must be career-related, and must impart skills and experience that will be of use to the students when seeking work upon graduation. The success of SWEP is based on your willingness to develop job proposals that meet these criteria. Such proposals, when approved, become jobs funded, either partially or wholly, by SWEP.
Faculty members who have taken advantage of this opportunity in the past have been primarily in Science, Applied Science, and Computing Science. They have had the benefit of energetic, talented students assisting them with their research projects, developing services, and completing exciting projects that have put Queen's University in the news. We believe there are many Faculty members in Arts who could use such assistance. We know there are large numbers of students in Arts who could use career-related jobs.
Are you a professor who could do a terrific research paper if you only had an assistant? Put in a proposal. Could you develop a great new course if you only had someone to help with organization and presentation? Put in a proposal. Do you have great ideas about things Queen's students could do, if only there was money to pay for them? Put in a proposal. Just look at the job that you'd like to have done; determine how it could benefit the student, in terms of building skills and providing experience; and write up the proposal with that in mind.
To obtain proposal forms, call Sharon at 7324, or e-mail her at swep@post.queensu.ca. Proposals have to be submitted by November 27, 1998.
[Top of Page | QUFA's Home Page | Queen's Home Page]
Last revised: September 26, 2000
Maintained by: Queen's University Faculty Association
TEL: (613) 533-2151 E-Mail: qufa2@post.queensu.ca
/qufa/
