News

Some of our Faculty have noted that there was no step increase evident on the most recent paycheck. "Regular" step increases for Faculty have occurred historically at this time based on the Board's mandate in the collective agreement to set the salary schedule for each new academic year (as opposed to setting a schedule which would persist beyond the current year, which is not the practice and is not provided for in the collective agreement). So for the three years that our Collective Agreement has been in effect, that has been the approach.

This year is different, because the current collective agreement is expired and the Faculty Association and Concordia are in the midst of collective bargaining to renegotiate the agreement, including the salary schedule and compensation, in collective bargaining. Since the Faculty Association and Concordia are actively negotiating matters of compensation (both amounts and structural aspects of how the schedule operates), adjusting any aspect of compensation would obviously be premature and, at worst, would likely be out of step with whatever is ultimately agreed between the parties on compensation. That can create not only serious administrative complication, but also potential prejudice to the staff. In short, the Board cannot implement an agreement on compensation until there is an agreement with the Faculty Association on compensation. For this reason, until negotiations are concluded, Faculty will continue to receive their existing 2015-2016 salaries as negotiated with the Faculty Association executive and previously approved by the Board. Retroactive adjustments may also be required once an agreement is reached with the Faculty Association, depending on the details of the agreement. Administration is happy to answer any further questions that may arise in this regard, and it is our hope that negotiations will be concluded soon.