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Arbitration Reply Submissions Exchanged

On May 24, 2013, the Faculty Association and the University exchanged their formal reply submissions with each other (UBCFA and UBC), and with the Arbitrator, Colin Taylor. The original submissions (UBCFA and UBC ) were exchanged on May 8. The arbitration will take place on June 3-5, 2013.

The proposals that the Association presented to the University acknowledged the excellence of our faculty members, who have contributed greatly to the University in its steadily upward climb in the rankings, both nationally and internationally. The proposals also encouraged an environment of collegial governance and fairness towards all members of the bargaining unit. Excellence, collegial governance, and fairness are things that we should all be able to agree upon.

There is a disagreement between the parties about how Progress Through the Ranks (PTR, comprised of Career Progress Increments, merit and PSA) should be costed in the agreement. The University proposes that PTR be counted as part of a general salary increase.  However, none of the components of PTR is automatic, and are in fact earned by faculty for performance of their jobs. 39% percent of our members do not receive CPI, merit or PSA (sessionals, for instance, are not eligible for any of these increments, and merit and PSA increments are extremely competitive, with not enough of them available to reward every deserving faculty member and librarian with these). PTR is a feature of university Collective Agreements throughout the country, and is not used by other universities to deflect an appropriate general wage increase. In fact, the most recent settlement at the University of Toronto not only included a decent general wage increase, but increases in the value of PTR for two years.