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A summary of the tentative settlement

A summary of the tentative settlement

2003.01.17


Reminder: The ratification vote for the tentative settlement will be be held at a General Meeting of the TUFA bargaining unit on Thursday, 23 January, at 2 p.m. in the Science Complex Lecture Hall (SC 137). If you can't make it, you can give a colleague who will be there a proxy.

 

To read the whole Memorandum of Settlement, see:

The links below are to the relevant portions of the Memorandum.

 

 

Complement

  • A commitment to a large part of the Dean's Provisional Four Year Full-time Faculty Plan: at least three-fourths of the tenure-stream hires planned this year and three-fifths of those planned next year, plus replacements of unanticipated departures. The fraction of three-fifths will be increased to one if the teaching ratio (currently about 106 student courses per full-time equivalent faculty member) rises by 10% or more next year. However, if the teaching ratio drops by 10% or more, the fraction of three-fifths will be reduced to zero. These commitments would apply only to the Peterborough campuses, and not to Trent's operations in Durham. If it becomes necessary to scale those operations back, tenure stream faculty in Durham transferred to Peterborough would count towards the commitments for Peterborough hires. (New Appendix G.)

    There is also a provision that the Dean attempt to maintain the current teaching ratio. While this is rather less than the commitment we had hoped to get of working towards reducing the teaching ratio to Senate's goal of eighty to one, it is something we may be able to build on in the future.

    Nothing in the language prevents the administration from meeting or exceeding the targets set in the Dean's plan, in Peterborough or Durham; there are only some limits on the extent to which the administration can fail to meet these targets in Peterborough.

     

  • The limit of 36 months of service in five years for TUFA members on limited-term contracts is to be suspended through June 30, 2005 to help deal with the double cohort. (New Appendix I.)

     

  • The conversion rate for consolidating course stipends into limited-term contracts is to be included in the collective agreement, though we did not succeed in improving it. (Amendments to III.4.2.3.1.)

     

No change was agreed to in the 1.5 course limit on teaching done by CUPE members. It was asserted several times by members of the administration that it would be necessary to exceed that limit in order to maintain reasonable workloads. However, the administration team was unwilling or unable to supply the data the TUFA team believed to be needed to make a convincing case.

 

 

Support

  • The Marking Fund is to be renamed the "Teaching Support Fund" and significant changes made to its administration. It is to be distributed by the Dean to departments/programs, and allocated within departments/programs by their chairs. (There is a provision for appeals of the Dean's and chairs' allocations to be heard by the Vice-President Academic.) This will hopefully encourage the Fund to be used more creatively. Moreover, the amount allocated to the Fund is to be increased by 33% from $4.50 to $6.00 per student course and to be based on the current year's, rather than the past year's, count of student courses. (Amendments to IV.2.1.)

    Should the increased allocation prove inadequate, there is a commitment that up to $10,000 more will be made available. (New Letter of Agreement outside the collective agreement.)

     

  • The annual allocation to each member's Professional Expenses Fund is to be increased from $800 to $900 and the number of claims permitted annually is to be increased from two to three. (Amendments to IV.4.)

     

Compensation and salary structure

  • The department/program director/chair's stipend is to be increased from $4641 to $4883 and will continue to be adjusted as the salary scale is. This boils down to an increase from 10% of step A4 to 10% of step A5/B1. (Amendments to VIII.2.)

     

  • The stipend for reading courses taught outside the regular academic session is to be specified in the collective agreement and increased from $280 to $322 for a full course and from $140 to $161 for a half course. This is the first increase since at least 1987... (New VIII.3.3.)

     

  • Probationary members are to be eligible for merit awards from their second year. (Amendments to III.9.2.1.)

     

  • Effective at the end of the day on 30 June, 2003, new steps (C21) and (D22) accessible only by merit are to be added to the tops of the Associate Professor and Full Professor ranges on the salary grid. Steps (I3) and (I4) in the Librarian I range of the salary grid are to be unbracketted (i.e. made accessible without merit). (Amendments to Schedule A.)

    The teams neglected to specify an amount for the new step (D22); we have an informal understanding that it will be obtained by extrapolating from the current steps.

     

  • A joint committee is to study issues related to salary structure; it is to have some crossover membership and work jointly where appropriate with the existing parity committee. (New Appendix H.)

    In particular, it is intended to study the possibility of creating a new rank of "University Professor" for "faculty members who have distinguished themselves by international standards", which might be tenable past the normal retirement age. (New Letter of Intent outside the collective agreement.)

No changes have been made to the parity formula, though the administration team did indicate that they would probably raise the issue of amending the formula in the next round of negotiations. There is an informal agreement that the existing joint committee on parity is to study possible ways of doing so.

 

 

Retirement

  • A "late career reduction" clause has been added, building on existing language allowing members to ask to drop to half-time status with full-time benefits (including pension benefits) for up to three years. In the case of such a reduction in the last three years before a member's normal retirement, the necessary permissions may be withheld for at most the first year of the proposed reduction. (New III.3.4.9.)

     

We failed to obtain a new voluntary early retirement plan or provision for postponed retirement, aside from exploring the creation of a new rank of "University Professor" which might carry the privilege of postponed retirement.

 

 

Benefits

  • The hearing aid benefit is to be increased from $300 every five years to $500 every four years. (Amendments to VIII.4.1.f.ii.)

     

  • The massage therapy benefit is to be increased from $100 to $200 annually. (Amendments to VIII.4.1.f.vi.)

     

The two teams erred badly by agreeing to (see page 3 of Employer Response October 7, 2002), but forgetting to sign off on, provisions concerning parenthood benefits. We have an informal understanding that this agreement will be implemented anyway. A committee is to recommend by the end of 2003 how to improve the existing parenthood benefits, using EI to limit the cost; in the interim, Human Resources will help members extend the present benefits using EI so far as possible.

 

 

Patents and Copyright Clauses

Changes made to the Intellectual Property and Copyright clauses (IV.7) serve the purpose of clarifying the relationship between the members and the university vis-a-vis ownership and exploitation of intellectual property and copyright. (Amended IV.7.)

Some of the highlights are:

 

  • Patents: The clauses relating to patents (IV.7.1 a-j) are now entitled Protection of Intellectual Property not subject to Copyright and all references to patents have been changed to refer to intellectual property.

    These changes serve the purpose of broadening the applicability of these clauses to things other than patents, e.g. trademarks. They do not in any way change how patents are dealt with nor do they apply to material covered by copyright.

     

  • Facilities: All references made to the use of facilities are now directly linked to the Facilities clause (IV.I.3) in the contract. This clarifies what was in many instances vague and inconsistent language.

     

  • Copyright: Clause IV.7.2(a) has been amended to include copyright in "...original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works..." This expands on the types of works in which members now hold copyright and brings the contract language in line with the statutory language on copyright.

    Copyright in lectures has been changed to give members ownership in all teaching materials used in lectures including "multimedia instructional materials".

    Copyright in computer programs now vests entirely with the member. Members are under no obligation to seek copyright protection for their computer programs or pursue any exploitation of their work.

    If a member chooses to commercialize their computer program the employer has 2 months, rather than the 5 months in the previous language, to decide if it wishes to be involved in that venture.

    The title of clause IV.7.4 has been changed from Audio Visual Material to Multimedia Instructional Material. This has been done to try and capture the many new varieties of non-print instructional materials that exist beyond just the audio visual type.

    The language in these clauses has been changed to provide greater clarity about what is included in the definition of multimedia instructional material (texts or scripts of multimedia packages are not covered by these clauses), the extent to which use of the employer's facilities effects the share of control over a product, and the creator now retains all moral rights associated with any multimedia instructional material.

     

Spousal hiring

  • The current language is to be deleted and a joint committee to review the issue of spousal and "retention" appointments, including any proposals devised by Professors Mitchell and Sangster. (Deletion of and agreement to review alternatives to III.3.5

     

Housekeeping...

Various small changes for a variety of purposes:

 

  • Three year term for the new collective agreement. (Amendments to II.1.)
  • Reduce the number of extra copies of the collective agreement provided to TUFA from 100 to 50. (Amendments to II.3.)
  • Specify some data (amount spent on TUFA, benefits data, eventually data on courses and students taught by TUFA members) the administration should collect and provide TUFA with. (New II.5.1.)
  • Change deadlines concerning summer and off-campus courses to reflect recent practice. (Amendments to III.12.1.)
  • Change the provision that members should notify their chairs of their summer vacation period to ensure that this period is at least two weeks long. (Amendments to IV.2.7.)
  • Clarify references to dates in the provisions concerning members access to their personnel files. (Amendments to IV.8.6.1 & IV.8.6.2.)
  • Change pro-ration of benefits provision to resolve an inconsistency for part-time members with III.3.3.2 iv), which reflects actual practice. (Amended VIII.7.3.)
  • Delete appendices rendered obsolete by the approval of the new Pension Plan and SRA. (Delete Appendices G-K.)
  • Bring the period considered for merit for librarians in line with the period for faculty members and actual practice. (Amendments to Appendix A.8.)
  • Clarify references to Deans in the Policy on Scholarly Misconduct (Amendments to Appendix C.III.)

The teams failed to reach agreement on how to implement one significant piece of housekeeping, the proposal to extend the probationary period by one year.