Dues Holiday

In November 2008, the membership accepted a recommendation of the Executive Committee and voted in favour of a dues increase from a mill rate ($ per $1000) of 5.28 to 6.78. Prior to this increase, and in spite of prudent financial management, the Faculty Association had posted deficit budgets for the five years previous to 2008, and consequently, reserve funds had been cut in half during this time leaving the Association vulnerable. This increase was proposed to ensure that the Faculty Association would be able to continue to provide representation and services for our members in an increasingly complex and challenging legal environment. Even with the increase, our mill rate is still below the rates at other major universities including the University of Toronto (7.5) and Simon Fraser University (6.8).

While the Faculty Association Executive Committee asked the membership to support the increase, the Executive Committee at the time also made a promise to execute a dues holiday when reserves hit 1.5 times the operating budget.

Now, in spite of a rather tumultuous year and two consecutive interest arbitrations, the Faculty Association is in a sound financial position with an appropriate level of reserves for the size of the organization. As such, your current Executive Committee passed two motions at a recent committee meeting: to implement a 4-month dues holiday (May to August 2016) and to not collect the back dues resulting from the retroactive salary increases for 2014 and 2015 in the recent interest arbitration award.

As we go forward, we are committed to maintaining a high standard of service for our membership while carefully managing our financial resources.


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