College faculty to vote on management's 'final offer'

Academic staff at Sault College and 23 other provincial colleges will be voting directly on a "final offer" presented by management last week and rejected by the union's bargaining team.

Yesterday, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union announced a February 11 strike deadline if no settlement can be achieved and agreed to send all outstanding issues to binding arbitration.

Today, the College Compensation and Appoitnments Council, representing management, issued the following news release:

************************* Faculty to decide on enhanced salary and workload protections

A favourable result will ensure a full collective agreement

TORONTO (February 2, 2010) - College faculty will have the opportunity to vote on the colleges’ final offer.

The colleges have asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) to begin preparations for a final offer vote at all 24 colleges.

The date of the final offer vote will be determined by the OLRB and communicated as soon as it is available.

The request to the OLRB follows OPSEU’s decision to set a strike date for February 11 and its refusal to allow the faculty to vote on the colleges’ proposed collective agreement.

“We have asked the OLRB to expedite the vote procedures so that the vote can be held as soon as possible,” said Dr. Rachael Donovan, chair of the colleges’ bargaining team. “We are asking that the offer go to a vote because we think the faculty should have an opportunity to have their say.”

The vote will ask college faculty to accept or reject the colleges’ final offer.

“The proposed collective agreement provides fair and reasonable improvements and is one that we hope faculty will support,” said Dr. Donovan. “If the majority of faculty votes in favour of the final offer, there will be a full collective agreement in place, the strike will be avoided, and we can all focus our attention on our students and their success.”

The colleges’ final offer is a three-year deal that includes:

- A 5.9 percent salary increase

- New maximum salary of $102,186 by September 1, 2011, an increase of approximately $5,650 over the previous collective agreement maximum.

Workload protections contained in the last collective agreement are enhanced based on the recommendations of the joint workload task force.

The colleges reject binding arbitration as a viable solution.

“Binding arbitration is not the answer,” said Dr. Donovan. “We believe the right approach is to allow the faculty an opportunity to vote on this offer, not to bypass them by giving the responsibility to a third party.

“There is no need for this disruption to our students’ education. Our goal is to end the uncertainty for students and faculty by getting an agreement in place.”

Details of the offer can be found here.

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