I am excited to welcome the start of another academic year. There is a lot to look forward to and to begin, I wanted to highlight some events that will serve to reconnect us all to each other during this month of September.
UWSA is excited to be one of many sponsors for the 21st Annual Pow Wow hosted by the Office of Indigenous Relations. UWSA will be there on September 28 to celebrate along with our campus community. If you have never been, it is so much fun! I was touched by the cultural experience, it was my first time last year and I highly recommend going.
We are also going to be joining as allies for the National Truth and Reconciliation Day Event on September 30. Like always, there will be a walk around Ring Road that we hope to see you there for.
As we return back to our work from taking summer holidays, we also will be continuing on with visiting departments on campus so if you are interested in having us do our presentations on services, please get in touch with us.
Salary agreement
Over the summer our salary agreement concluded, and we want to again say thank you to staff for their kind messages. We’re happy to work on behalf of staff and take issues to the forefront wherever needed.
One thing I wanted to clear up was the item related to the merit program: it is not going away. Some staff interpreted the memo from the provost to mean that it would be taken away, but this is not the case. The merit program is going to be reviewed and worked on, but it isn’t going away. UWSA will be advocating for the proper people to notify our staff members of the changes that will be made to the merit system. We also will advocate to work in tandem with administration to make sure staff concerns are heard throughout the process.
As you know, the administration has been working on unveiling the Strategic Talent and Performance Management Framework, the implementation of which will introduce a new performance development program. I believe this framework will provide clarity on roles and responsibilities through clear job descriptions, including competencies and accountabilities. This will inform the redevelopment of the performance appraisal system. The administration’s timeline has this being implemented within the year because those changes will affect factors included in salary discussions.
As the agreement is in place for one year, we understand that the focus of PACSC for the upcoming months will be our new agreement. We have been taking note of comments and concerns that have been sent in by staff and will continue to do so. This will help inform us of what issues to focus on. And in the coming months, we hope to be engaging in work that is consultative with our membership.
Career advisor position
As many have heard our dear colleague Sue Fraser who was in the role of employee career advisor for many years has moved on to a new role on campus. We want to take a moment to thank Sue for all her hard work and dedication to staff over the years. Her work was vital and important to our campus community. We also congratulate her in her new role and wish her well.
A little background: The UWSA advocated for and was instrumental in the creation of this role as a pilot project in 2009 via the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Staff Compensation (PACSC) and it proved to be a success and a valuable resource for staff, leading to the fully funded role it is today and a resource with which the UWSA is closely aligned. At that time, UW agreed that our staff deserved focused, client-centred service for career counselling, and this stance does remain to be true. The position will remain, and it is expected to be filled again. Right now, it is in the process of being posted and recruiting will subsequently occur.
You may wish to contact Melanie Will from OHD, she’s been very gracious in extending her assistance for any immediate needs regarding this kind of service. She will be able to guide you to proper resources or answer questions about the role.
Elections
Please encourage anyone you know to read about our elections and the roles being elected, even if it’s just out of curiosity to know what we do. There are shareable slides in the AR teams files that reps can print out and/or use to talk about the elections with your colleagues.
We are making the effort to engage with our membership and inform them of what we do and how they can get involved. Even if it’s not something they can do right now, it may be something to look into for later.
I also want to congratulate and thank you all for spreading the word about UWSA in your respective departments, we have seen an increase in participation since I started my term, and you all played a key role in this success.
Kind regards,
Yessenia Guerrero
UWSA President
Yessenia Guerrero
UWSA President, 2023–2024
