CUPEU Collective Agreement Extended, Improved
July 07, 2009 by Rob Carver
Yesterday, CUPEU and the University signed two documents which effectively extend the collective agreement to 2010, result in pay increases of over eight percent, and expand employment security. Under the first document - the Lettre d'entente - Employment Security to age 61 has been extended to all permanent employees who were hired on or before June 1, 2006. Previously, only those hired before June 1, 2002 had been qualified. Approximately 65 members were affected by this change. Other improvements to the Employment Security package include tuition waivers for laid off employees, outplacement services and free financial advising for those who take severance packages. This agreement also results in a doubling of the 2007 pay scale increase, from two percent to four percent.
The second document - the Memoire d'entente - essentially creates a new Collective Agreement which remains in force until 2010. This new agreement includes the text from the 2002-2008 deal with the amendments from the Lettre d'entente, and builds in pay increases for 2008 (4%) and 2009 (2%). It also eliminates some of the text from the earlier agreement that is no longer relevant, such as the pay scales from 2002-2007.
The combined pay raises result in an immediate salary increase of over 8.2 percent for most, if not all, CUPEU members. Retroactivity will also be paid for the raises dating back to June 1, 2007. The University has agreed to finish the calculations and make the payments immediately following the resolution of a number of outstanding grievances or by December 1, whichever is earlier. People who have left CUPEU are also entitled to retroactivity, but it must be requested from HR within 90 days of the signing of the agreements. Current CUPEU members are not required to submit a request.