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TO: Members of the McMaster University Faculty Association
on the Career
FROM: Mike Veall, Chair, Remuneration Committee RE: Joint Committee Remuneration Agreement, July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006 |
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TO: Members of the McMaster University Faculty Association
on the Career
FROM: Mike Veall, Chair, Remuneration Committee RE: Joint Committee Remuneration Agreement, July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006 |
Attached you will find a copy of the Agreement negotiated in the Joint Committee and signed on March 4, 2005. The representatives of MUFA were Trevor Chamberlain (Faculty of Business, MUFA President), Betty Ann Levy (Department of Psychology and MUFA Vice-President) and Mike Veall (Department of Economics and Chair of the MUFA Remuneration Committee). Before this signing, the Remuneration Committee had met and endorsed the agreement unanimously. The Remuneration Committee includes the above as well as Susan Fast (School of the Arts), Nora Gaskin (Library), Wayne Lewchuk (Departments of Economics and Labour Studies) and Harry Shannon (Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics).The MUFA negotiating process started with a remuneration survey sent out to all members in early November as well as meetings with two randomly-selected focus groups. There were also a series of meetings of the MUFA Joint Committee representatives with and without the Remuneration Committee. This information was used to develop the initial MUFA brief which was made public on December 15, 2004 and discussed and approved at the MUFA General Meeting on January 4, 2005.
There were then a series of bargaining meetings in the Joint Committee. The MUFA representatives also met independently and with the Remuneration Committee. Had an agreement not been reached by March 15, 2005, MUFA and the Administration would each have submitted a final offer to a neutral third party (a “selector”), who would have had to choose either one final offer or the other. However, MUFA and the Administration came to terms before that date.
The MUFA representatives believe it is an excellent agreement. Moreover, they feel strongly that continued negotiations or going to final offer selection would have not led to a better outcome.
I thank the MUFA Remuneration Committee and particularly the MUFA representatives on the Joint Committee for the time and effort they put into this negotiating process. I ask you to support them and this excellent agreement by voting yes on the enclosed ballot and remembering to put your ballot in Campus Mail so that it is received by March 28, 2005. (If you need more information, please attend the special information meeting on Monday, March 21, 2005 at 3:30 pm in Hamilton Hall Room 302.) The agreement must be endorsed by a majority of voting members to take effect.
Discussion of the Agreement
To summarize the agreement, it is for one year with an across the board (ATB) increase of 3%. This ATB increase also applies to all salary floors as well as the par increment within the Career Progress/Merit (CP/M) scheme and the CP/M breakpoints. Research leaves currently offered at 85% salary will now be at 90% of salary. The Professional Development Allowance increases by $50. There are also significant increases in dental and paramedical coverage and very significant increases in floor overload stipends and vision care.The initial MUFA proposal was for a one-year agreement. The Administration’s initial proposal was for three years, but during the negotiations its representatives came to the view that a one-year agreement was preferable. Hence the agreement is for one year.
The focus group discussions suggested that the 3.0% ATB is one that most faculty would find reasonable (at least if combined with significant benefit improvements). It is comparable to those at other Ontario universities.1 Given the remuneration survey results,2 the MUFA representatives felt that if a satisfactory ATB could be obtained, the Association’s goal should be improvements in benefits (including the research leave provision). The agreement reflects this goal.
Going into more detail, the agreement did not change the basic nature of the CP/M scheme. However, for those of you new to McMaster, note that because of the CP/M scheme, most individual faculty salaries will increase by more than the 3.0% ATB. Using the numbers negotiated in this agreement, for members who receive a par award and whose salary is less than $92,443, salary as of July 1, 2005 will increase by an additional $2768.55. The system is designed to favour faculty at lower salaries so above $92,443 but below $112,985, the additional increase for someone given a par merit award would be $2076.41, above $112,985 but below $129,689 the value of a par increment would be $1384.27 and for salaries above that range, a par increment would be $692.
With respect to research leaves, first research leave will still be at 100% salary (although this does not apply to someone initially hired at McMaster as an Associate Professor or Full Professor who had already received a research leave at another university). Also for someone who chooses to take a 6-month leave when she/he would be eligible for a full-year research leave, the 6-month leave continues to be at 100% salary. But all other research leaves, which were formally offered at 85% salary, will now be at 90% salary under this agreement.
The increases in floor overload stipends represent increases of 17% to 19% over current levels.
A major benefit change is vision care. Before this agreement, only the employee was covered and the maximum was $150 per 24 months. Now the benefit is $250 per rolling 24 months for the employee and also $250 for each of the employee’s dependents also on a rolling 24 month basis.3
Paramedical benefits are currently $15 per visit up to a maximum of $225 per type of practitioner (e.g. physiotherapist, massage therapist, chiropractor) per person per benefit year. These are increased to $20 per visit up to a maximum of $300 per type of practitioner per person per benefit year.
Currently major dental procedures (crowns, dentures, implants, bridge, inlays, onlays and their repair) are covered at a rate of 70% of eligible expenses up to a maximum of $2,000 per person per benefit year and orthodontics are covered at a rate of 50% of eligible expenses up to a maximum of $2,000 per person per lifetime. This agreement increases the limits to $2,500 per person per benefit year and $2,500 per person per lifetime respectively.
Conclusion
No agreement is perfect. Nonetheless this agreement provides a reasonable across-the-board increase and provides very significant improvements in research leave salaries, overload stipends, vision care and other benefits. If you need more information, please attend the special information meeting on Monday, March 21, 2005 at 3:30 pm in Hamilton Hall Room 302. More importantly, please mark your ballot yes and remember to return it by March 28, 2005 to ensure this excellent agreement takes effect._______________________
1The only recent agreement at an Ontario university was at the University of Windsor, where a four-year (2004-2008) agreement was signed for successive annual ATBs of 3%, 3%, 3% and 4.5% or an average of about 3.4% per annum. While that is more than the 3% negotiated at McMaster, four years may be undesirably long and, in any case, the benefit improvements are much more significant on a per annum basis in the McMaster agreement. Turning to universities that McMaster usually uses for comparisons (Guelph, Queen’s, Toronto, Waterloo, Western and York), the ATBs of contracts currently in force are all in the range of 3.0% to 3.5%. However, because of the benefit and research leave improvements, the McMaster agreement is at least as attractive to faculty as these other agreements, in my view typically more attractive.2The survey of faculty indicated that only about one-sixth of faculty wanted the negotiations to focus solely on ATB, about one-third wanted some but not equal emphasis on benefits and almost one-half wanted equal emphasis on benefits and ATB. Questions designed to get some indication of priorities across non-taxable benefits found that a proposed improvement in vision benefits was ranked first, followed closely by a proposed improvement in dental benefits, followed by a proposed improvement in paramedical benefits which was in turn followed by an improvement in the Professional Development Allowance (PDA). Of a number of changes in taxable remuneration that were considered in the survey, the clear winner was an improvement in research leave salaries. The focus group discussions were consistent with the survey results.
While it is difficult to know exactly how to translate such survey results into the negotiating process (given that the priorities of the Administration were different than MUFA’s), the MUFA representatives did emphasize benefit improvements in the negotiations. Important improvements in vision care benefits, dental benefits, paramedical benefits, the PDA and research leave salaries were secured.
3Here is an example from McMaster’s Human Resources web site to explain the 24 months rolling basis:
“Sam bought glasses on January 1, 2003 for $100. Effective June 16, 2003 (after signing of the new collective agreement) Sam is now eligible to make an eyeglass claim for the remaining $150 of benefit. If Sam does not purchase glasses now but waits until after January 1, 2005, he would then be eligible to spend the full $250 again.
If Sam decides to spend the remaining $150 on December 1, 2003, he would be eligible for another $100 after January 1, 2005 and then the $150 remainder again on December 1, 2005.
Therefore, to summarize - the benefit "rolls" 24 months from date of purchase.”
pdk - March 29, 2005