A new multi-year contract between Brock University board of trustees and the faculty association has been struck.
The contract, which was ratified by both parties last month, provides a compensation increase of 1.75%, 1.5% and 1.5% for the next 3 years, in addition to progress through the rank increases of $3,154 for each of three years. The contract is retroactive to July 1, 2014.
Under the agreement, chairs’ and program directors’ stipends will show a small increase, as will professional development expense reimbursement. The agreement also improves the process for resolving respectful workplace issues, includes a new mechanism for resolving disagreements between deans and departments about workload assignments, whistleblower protection, and adds “facilitators” to the cap limiting the percentage of courses taught by non-members of the bargaining unit.
In addition, the parties negotiated a “memorandum of understanding” that brings forward a phased retirement program and a second that contains mutual commitments to review the process for determining that a financial exigency exists.
“In this round of bargaining, we faced an unprecedented negotiating situation, in which our administration tabled a huge set of proposed language changes that would have fundamentally transformed our collective agreement and removed many contractual protections for collegial self-governance, academic freedom, and educational quality,” said Linda Rose-Krasnor, president of Brock University Faculty Association.
“After more than two months of unproductive negotiations, we had reached an almost total impasse. It was only with the help of six days of intense pre-conciliation mediation, during which the administration withdrew most of its proposals, that we were able to reach a tentative agreement.”