Dear Colleagues:
As many of you may have heard, the Ontario government has stated that it intends to introduce legislation that will freeze compensation for employees in the Broader Public Sector. This follows legislation that was passed yesterday, with the support of the governing Liberals and Progressive Conservatives, freezing compensation for teachers and banning strikes for two years.
We understand that the Ministry of Finance is drafting the legislation but do not as yet have any details. We are in contact with various officials in the government to get more information, and do not know how it will apply to the university sector.
As you know, unlike the teachers, or Ontario civil servants, collective agreements in the university sector expire at different times, and a number of agreements have just been concluded that have a multi-year duration. We assume that any freezes would not roll back existing agreements but apply to agreements going forward — but again no details.
The issue of Ontario government compensation legislation for the university sector will be discussed this Friday, September 14, 2012 at OCUFA’s Collective Bargaining Committee meeting. As well, as soon as we have more information on the government’s legislation, we will let you know.
Needless to say, OCUFA will be vigorously opposing the government’s legislation to freeze compensation.
Best regards,
Mark
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Mark Rosenfeld, Ph.D
Executive Director
Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations
83 Yonge Street, Suite 300
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5C 1S8
Tel: 416-979-2117 x229
Fax: 416-593-5607
E-mail: [email protected]