Dear Fellow UWOSA Members,
This communication is to inform you that we have reached a Memorandum of Settlement with Western Administration to resolve the claim of the wage re-opener for increased compensation in light of Bill 124 being struck down as unconstitutional.
Bill 124 was the provincial government’s compensation restraint legislation which limited increases to wages and other forms of compensation to no more than 1% per year for a three year moderation period. As a result, we were forced to serve our 3 year moderation period in our 2021 – 2024 Collective Agreement. This meant that we only received a 1% wage increase during each of those years.
With Bill 124 no longer in effect, but before the appeals were all exhausted in the Ontario courts, we approached Western’s Administration to request discussions to resolve the claim of the wage re-opener and they agreed. UWOSA Executive met with the Employer on June 15, June 23, and July 19, and a Memorandum of Settlement was discussed. The Memorandum of Settlement was then discussed with the UWOSA Executive Committee and Stewards Council and was approved by the Stewards Council on July 19, 2023. The Memorandum of Settlement was approved by the Board of Governors on July 25, 2023.
The Settlement details include:
a) Year 2023-2024 Additional compensation to be paid within our existing Collective Agreement.
i) 2.0% increase in addition to the 1.0% increase already negotiated in 2021 (see new Appendix Y). Effective July 1, 2023 current salaries of all eligible Continuing, Sessional, and Term employees shall be increased by 3.0% total.
ii) A one-time lump sum pensionable payment of $1,200.00 for current Members who received a July 1, 2022 salary increase and are actively employed as of July 1, 2023.
The provision above requires the Member to be actively employed which means any Member who is on the following leaves is not entitled to the one-time lump sum payment:
• Those in receipt of Long Term Disability (LTD) benefits
• Those on an unpaid Leave of Absence
iii) Lump sum payment will be deferred for those on a pregnancy and parental leave.
Additional compensation will be applied on the July 2023 pay.
b) Members will receive three (3) caregiving days effective January 2024 for the 2024 calendar year.
Members shall be granted paid leave for up to three (3) working days to be used in the 2024 calendar year to attend to urgent or critical health needs of family. Members must notify the employer of each caregiving day using the employer’s procedures. The days must be taken as full days.
All other conditions in our current Collective Agreement remain intact until June 30, 2024. UWOSA remains set to negotiate this upcoming year at the expiry of our current Collective Agreement on June 30, 2024.
If the appeal is upheld, UWOSA will continue the discussion with Western Administration to be legally compliant with Bill 124.
Please review our bulletin sent on June 20, 2023 for a list of Frequently Asked Questions: * Bill 124 and Wage Re-Opener Update * | UWOSA
If you have any questions please contact info@uwosa.ca.
In Solidarity,
UWOSA Executive
(Nikki Grozelle, Jen Heidenheim, Meg Perinpanayagam, Lori Johnson, Natalie Samuel, Cleusa De Oliveira, and Emericks Rivas)
