UBC Reports | Vol. 47 | No. 12 | August 9, 2001

Agreement awards faculty wage, career advancement increases

Steps will help retain faculty, says association president

UBC's Board of Governors has ratified a three-year agreement between the university and the Faculty Association.

Highlights include a general wage increase of two per cent and a Career Advancement Plan (CAP) allocation of 2.5 per cent, both committed in each of the next three years. CAP comprises both career progress increments and performance salary adjustments.

"We are very pleased with the new agreement," says Norma Wieland, president of the Faculty Association. "The CAP provides our members with predictability and stability for the next three years. The improvements to benefits and the moneys to address salary inequities will be important in retaining faculty in this time of increasing national and international competition."

There is $1 million committed to addressing salary inequities and $500,000 has been earmarked to improve the sessional instructor minimum salary scale.

An allocation of $2.5 million will be used to increase salaries of faculty members for the purpose of retention.

In addition, there is a $1 million provision to increase annual base salaries of faculty members in the departments of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering to better reflect current market salary levels in these fields.

"There is no task more important at this stage of UBC's development than the recruitment and retention of the very best faculty and the provision for a $2.5 million retention fund over three years will allow us the flexibility to address this critical challenge," says Derek Atkins, associate vice-president, Academic Planning.

Benefit improvements include a top-up for biological fathers taking parental leave.

The professional development fund is increased to $500 for all members of the Faculty Association except sessional lecturers without continuing status.

There is also a series of amendments to the Framework Agreement to align it with the Labour Code as well as improvement to 12-month lecturer positions.

There are currently two sessional agreements in force. Next year, negotiators plan to merge them so that all agreements will be integrated.

The Faculty Association represents 2,500 UBC faculty including sessional lecturers, professional librarians, and program directors.