Colleges faculty to receive 7.75 per cent pay hike over four years

Ontario colleges faculty are satisfied by the release of an arbitrator’s award for their new collective agreement, a key union figure says.

Ravi Ramkissoonsingh, vicepresident of Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 242, said the arbitrator’s decision to guarantee professors and instructors input into course curriculum is a win for the union. The request for more input was a sticking point during the colleges’ five-week strike.

Ramkissoonsingh said the union asked that instructors have more say in how students are tested, what books they use and how they are taught.

“Now we have the means to do that … before we didn’t have that, we were told what to do,” he said.

The importance of allowing instructors to have more input in curriculum is letting experts decide what should be taught, Ramkissoonsingh said.

“Who is better equipped to decide what needs to be taught?”

Ramkissoonsingh, a psychology professor at Mohawk College, said previously program co-ordinators and deans made academic decisions based on financial considerations.

A Niagara College media release said the college is pleased with the outcome of the arbitrator’s award.

“We have a workable award that is in the best interests of all parties and we want to thank the arbitrator for his efforts,” Sonia Del Missier, chair of the colleges’ bargaining unit, said in the release.

The award also included a 7.75 per cent salary increase over four years. This remains the same as the original offer prior to the strike.

Ramkissoonsingh said the union is pleased with this outcome.

Due to the provincial government’s return-to-work order, Ramkissoonsingh said, a great deal of faculty have been working overtime. The arbitrator has recognized this and removed all grievances, complaints and claims. Fulltime staff will receive a one-time payment of $900 and partial-load staff will receive $450.