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UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION’S REPRESENTATIVES ON THE JOINT COMMITTEE |
December 11, 2001
The University Administration’s
representatives on the Joint Committee look forward to our Committee’s
deliberations to determine the remuneration provisions for the next few
years. This opening submission outlines our view of the context and
considerations that will pertain to our discussions. In preparing
for this meeting, we have identified the key interests that we hope the
Joint Committee’s discussions can address. These interests inform
and underlie all that we hope to contribute to, and achieve through, this
process.
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Our primary interest is to maintain
and, wherever possible, enhance provisions that allow the University and
the Faculty Association to ensure the highest standards of excellence of
McMaster’s faculty. This is the single most important ingredient
necessary to ensure the University’s achievement of its goals and mission.
In so doing, all of us on the Joint Committee will have paid due attention
to the “Principles for Negotiation of Faculty Remuneration”, which the
University Administration’s representatives accept as an important and
relevant guide to our discussions. [Attached as Tab 1]*
(*The documents contained at the Tabs are available in the MUFA Office for viewing)
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It is our strongly held preference
that the Committee achieves agreement in direct discussion. Agreements
made directly among the members of the Joint Committee are always superior
to ones imposed by someone external to the relationship.
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In view of the demands and challenges
that lie in the immediate future for the university and its faculty, it
is our belief that we will all be best served by the stability and predictability
provided by a three-year agreement on matters of remuneration.
- As in all matters, the agreement needs to be mindful of the fiscal health of the University. It is the Committee’s challenge to balance this stewardship responsibility with the achievement of outcomes consistent with the interests stated above.
There are four major
areas of consideration that form the backdrop to our discussions during
this round of negotiations. In each case, the members of the Joint
Committee have access to recent documentation and information providing
the specific data pertaining to each. With this submission, we are
including the documents that are especially pertinent. We remain
committed to providing any other information that the Association’s representatives
might request. Attached, please find:
The Financial Statements of McMaster University (Tab 2)
As an overview of the
four major areas of considerations we offer the following.
The Financial Environment
Consideration of McMaster’s
financial position cannot be separated from discussion of increased faculty
remuneration. The components of our revenue and expense picture will
help the Joint Committee to appreciate the fiscal constraints that place
boundaries on the outcomes of our discussions. The University Administration’s
members of the Committee look forward to a full and open discussion of
these numbers, trends and plans as our deliberations ensue.
Remaining Competitive
If we are to retain current
faculty members and attract new and equally highly qualified ones, it is
of paramount importance that McMaster offer salaries, benefits and working
conditions that are competitive with those offered by other excellent universities.
Factors particular to those other institutions will often influence the
nature of agreements within their academic communities, but it is instructive
to consider what they have to offer. The University Administration’s
members on the Joint Committee are open to comparing notes with the Association
with a view to ensuring that our remuneration outcomes address this issue.
Furthermore, within our own
McMaster community, it is also important to consider commitments the University
has made to other groups’ compensation packages. Information about
these settlements and policies will be shared.
The Campus Environment
There is more to life as
a faculty member at McMaster than salaries and benefits. A safe,
functional, up-to-date and clean working environment is also fundamental.
An environment that is conducive to learning is also critical in attracting
and retaining the best faculty, and thereby the best students. This
goal does, though, involve a major draw on our resources. Our committee’s
consideration of future faculty compensation also has to take the needs
pertaining to the working environment into account.
Faculty Renewal
This issue, the importance
of which flows from demographic trends associated with both faculty members
and students, is by no means particular to McMaster. A critical component
to our discussion will be an analysis of the size and nature of the challenge
facing McMaster in this regard. Faculty renewal at a rate appropriate
to address both the retirement of many highly qualified faculty and the
growth in student numbers is fundamental to the University continuing to
achieve its mission. This will be the source of pressure on our resources
but it will also be the opportunity for McMaster to confirm its continued
reputation for excellence. Decisions made by the Joint Committee
in these discussions will be key to our success.
PROPOSAL
We propose that the Committee give due consideration to the issues described above, so that we might collectively establish an appreciation of the environment within which we are negotiating.
We further propose that we agree without delay to maintenance of the Career Progress/Merit (CP/M) scheme at the “normal” level of 120 par units per 100 faculty members.
Subject to agreement on this point, and working within the parameters of the attached Budgetary Framework, we propose that we then jointly establish an appropriate amount of increase to Salary and Benefits compensation exclusive of the cost of maintenance of the CP/M scheme. With this in mind, we offer the following:
A) Career Progression / Merit (CP/M): Our proposal is to make this the foundation of our new agreement. We shall provide the models that indicate what it will cost to maintain it in each year of an agreement. (In the first year, the cost of 120 par units per 100 faculty members is between 2.25 and 2.5% of salary plus benefits.)
B) Salary and Benefits: With the cost of CP/M established, we propose to determine through Joint Committee discussion the most effective way of distributing the balance of the available total compensation for each year of the agreement among the components of the salary and benefits remuneration package. Full costing information will be shared on each potential item such that the committee can maximize the allocation of this amount to meet our shared interests and objectives. Possible components include (with reference, as appropriate to the “Principles for Negotiation of Faculty Remuneration”):
i) Principles #1 and #2 (re. Compensation):
- An across-the-board (ATB) increase for all faculty, to maintain a competitive salary structure and to reduce erosion by inflation.
- Floor and breakpoint adjustments to the CP/M to allow larger CP/M increases, for more years, for many, and especially the more junior, faculty members. Our models, to which we referred above in the context of our commitment to the 120 par units per 100 faculty members, also indicate what modifications to floors and breakpoints would cost.
ii) Principle #4 (re. Compensation):iii) Principle #6 (re. Compensation):
- Medical Benefits: Our belief is that our medical benefits package is, on balance, a competitive one. That said, we are willing to respond to suggestions as to how it may be improved, bearing in mind that any increased costs must be accommodated within an agreed upon total for compensation exclusive of CP/M.
- Supplementary Earnings Retirement Plan (SERP): Approximately one-third of McMaster’s faculty members are at or above the Revenue Canada maximum, and that fraction will increase appreciably during the term of our agreement. The introduction of a SERP is therefore an essential component of an overall compensation package that will allow us to recruit and retain the best faculty. A SERP is furthermore crucial if a McMaster pension is to fairly reflect the service and salary on which it should be based. A SERP will impose costs on the University, and its introduction will have an impact on what else is possible within the agreed upon total for compensation exclusive of CP/M. We are close to completion of a review of different ways in which a SERP could be implemented, which will include cost estimates, and we will share this information with our colleagues in the Faculty Association early in 2002.
iv) Principle #5 (re. Compensation) and Principle #11 (re. Working Conditions):
- Professional Development Allowance: We recognize that for faculty in some academic domains the PDA is crucial to the pursuit of their scholarly objectives. As such, it is an effective way for the University to support scholarship while not contributing to the tax burden of the individual. We therefore see considerable merit in discussing an adjustment to the monetary value of the PDA.
- Modem Pool Fund: As with the PDA, we recognize that this fund is important to some, but not all, faculty. We are prepared to review it as part of overall compensation.