‘Rough start’ to U of O talks with professors

Union opposes major pension plan changes

Contract negotiations with the University of Ottawa are off to a rocky start, says a union that represents more than 1,200 professors and academic librarians.

A key problem, according to the Association of Professors of the University of Ottawa, is that the university is looking to deal with pension plan reforms at the bargaining table rather than through a working group composed of other unions and contributors to the plan.

The sides are at odds about the sustainability of the plan, and the working group is where the issue should be discussed — not during negotiations with an individual union, APUO president Christian Rouillard said Friday.

“We still believe that it’s the only sensible process, to have everyone at the same table,” said Rouillard.

The university and union are trying to reach an agreement that would cover a period beginning in May 2012, and exchanged formal proposals last month.

An “ad hoc discussion group” was where the pension situation was explained and ideas were shared with everyone involved, said university spokesman Drew Anderson, but “that being said, now is the time to act.”

The plan has a solvency deficiency of $345 million, the university states in documents posted to its website. It applied to the Ontario government this year for pension solvency relief, Anderson said.

“Part of that application requires us to demonstrate a plan of action to ensure that our pension remains sustainable,” Anderson said, and the negotiating table is the most appropriate place to do that because the pension is tied into the collective agreement. Other universities in the province have taken similar steps to negotiate pension reform through their collective agreements, he said.

The union, meanwhile, is “firm in our position that there is no structural or design problem with our pension plan,” said Rouillard.

Proposed changes that would increase contributions and reduce benefits aren’t warranted, he added. “All that it is is an actuarial challenge, really, and it will resolve itself,” he said, adding that the union challenges the assumptions made by the university in its assessment of the long-term viability of the plan.

Pension-related changes proposed by the university would, according to the union, increase the average member’s contributions by 50 per cent ($3,000 more per year.) At the same time, an average member would receive about $3,000 a year less in pension benefits in retirement, the union says.

The union isn’t prepared to discuss the pension issue during negotiations, said Rouillard. In a letter sent late last month to university president Allan Rock, he stated that bargaining had started in a “surprisingly adversarial fashion.”

The union has other concerns about the university’s offer, ranging from the size of proposed salary increases to suggested changes in language that describes what members can be disciplined for (a switch from there needing to be “just and sufficient cause” to “valid reasons.”)

It also doesn’t like a proposal to expand the use of “teaching-focused” positions that would place heavier emphasis on teaching over research than “traditional” positions. Such a move would create a “permanent two-tier system,” the union says, and boost teaching loads while cutting the amount and type of research that professors in the focused positions could conduct, limiting their potential for career growth.

Anderson wouldn’t talk about details of negotiations. A university presentation about the proposal, however, cites research that suggests professors tend to identify themselves as either teaching or research-oriented, and states that “creating a teaching stream would allow professors to better play to their respective strengths and interests.

“While being engaged in discipline-research can positively impact teaching, evidence suggests that teaching and learning outcomes can be delivered equally as well and sometimes better by teaching stream professors,” states another slide in the presentation.

The university is “very optimistic that we can come to a negotiated settlement that works for both sides and for the entire university community,” Anderson said.

The union membership has given until mid-August for an agreement to be reached, said Rouillard. The sides continue to meet, he said, “but the actual proposals that were made and the way they have been presented do leave a lot to be desired.”