Good Afternoon UNBC Faculty and Staff,

The UNBC Faculty Association and University signed a fully ratified Agreement just over two years ago on April 6, 2021.  Since then, the Faculty Association and University have been working to transition and fully implement the Agreement.  This included the establishment of six working groups to review and report on various aspects of the Agreement that impact members, such as pensions and benefits, SLI workload, and University Promotion and Tenure Appeals processes.  These reports have been reviewed and received by the Joint Consultation Committee.

The final outstanding MoU embedded in the current 2019-2023 Collective Agreement that the Parties continued to work on was related to allocating the savings from the Early Retirement Offers / Volunteer Retirement Incentive Program.  After extended discussions, the Parties signed an agreement on Monday April 17, 2023.  As these were savings that were to address compensation, the majority of the savings will be provided to eligible members (i.e., a Faculty Association member as of July 1, 2019) as a lump sum payment, with the remainder of the savings being added to the Post-Retirement Benefits Fund (Article 19.7). Eligible members will receive a notice of the payment prior to receiving their payment.  We expect that these payments will occur before June 30.

With the last of the transition items completed, the Parties will now be able to enter into bargaining having collectively built an improved labour relations environment.

Sincerely,

Bill Owen
Vice Provost Faculty Relations