Faculty

FAUW is happy to announce that we have reached a three-year salary settlement with the University administration, effective May 1, 2021. 

This round of negotiations posed some unique challenges: meeting via video conferencing, the added stressors of the pandemic, and the unusual constraints of Bill 124, which restricts the University’s total spending on compensation to a 1% increase each year for three years. 

Our negotiating team has been engaged in bargaining with the University on salary and other compensation items since December 1, 2020. We did not reach an agreement by midnight, February 1, so negotiations will continue, first with a mediator and then, if an agreement is still not reached by March 1, going to arbitration. All these procedures are set out in section 10 of the Memorandum of Agreement.

The proposed revised version of Policy 14 – Pregnancy and Parental Leaves (including Adoption) is now posted for consultation with the UW community. The proposed changes would take us from having one of the worst pregnancy and parental leave policies in the province to one of the best.

Our 2018 salary settlement with the University included a commitment to re-allocate unused Faculty Professional Expense Reimbursement (FPER) funds. We've reached an agreement with Provost to divide all the FPER money that expired last spring and this spring equally among members and add it to this year’s FPER allowance (for faculty who were FPER-eligible as of May 1, 2020). That will happen on December 4, 2020.

Earlier this month, FAUW conducted a survey about members' experiences preparing for the 2020 spring and fall terms amid the transition to fully remote delivery, to help us advocate for our members’ interests. You can now access the results of the survey in the Reports & Documents section of our website. 

FAUW is particularly concerned that, at the time of the survey (May 8–13), 71% of respondents teaching in the fall said it was not clear to them how decisions were being made about how their courses should be delivered. 

74% of respondents teaching in the spring term felt more unprepared than usual at the start of term and only 53% felt that they received adequate support for spring term overall.