Faculty Proposals — Staffing

The following initial proposals were presented to the CEC negotiations team on August 4, 2021. Below, you will find our overview of the proposals (which is adapted from the language that we presented at the bargaining table to provide context), as well as the specific changes to the Collective Agreement that we tabled. In the margins of the table below, you will find brief notes explaining the intent of the changes.

Demands:

The following staffing demands were passed by delegates from the 24 Ontario College Locals, at our final demand-setting meeting in April. They were drafted following an extensive consultation process with faculty across the province, including surveys and Local demand-set meetings:

• Establish staffing ratios for each College, including minimum staffing ratios for FT
• Establish minimum complements of full time counsellors and librarians at each College
• Ensure that all academic work is performed by faculty who are employees of that College

Overview:

When the parties met in July, we each outlined our priorities for bargaining. We both expressed the importance of a stable college system. One of the ways we can ensure a stable college system is to address staffing complement. Currently, approximately 75% of faculty at Ontario colleges are precarious workers employed on short-term contracts—this is not a sustainable system.

A better balance between full-time and contract faculty, and increased job security for those on contract is more important now than ever in order to be able to fully support the diversity and complexities of our students’ needs. Indeed, in post-secondary institutions across Canada, faculty complement language is included in faculty collective agreements, and the trend is toward less precarity being built into collective agreements.

Complement language allows students, administrators, and faculty to be assured that our system has the stability we need to provide high-quality, public post-secondary education. In addition, what we propose here incorporates the flexibility needed to ensure our students continue to have access to contract faculty who bring the latest from industry for our system, balanced with the stable pedagogical foundation that comes with dedicated, regular full-time faculty.

Taken together with our proposal on working outside the Colleges, which you will hear about later, students will have faculty who can continue to bring cutting-edge skills into the classrooms as an ongoing practice, while maintaining the stability they and the colleges need to create high-quality teaching and learning environments. Our proposals will enhance the reputation of Ontario colleges, and position us as leaders in both education and practical experience for students, as well as good employers. Our proposals also create pathways to full-time jobs for those contract faculty who seek them, while giving those contract faculty who would prefer choose to remain on contracts the ability to do so.

A truly modern college system understands that flexibility and stability are not diametrically opposed conditions: a high-quality and stable system builds flexibility – not on the backs of precarious workers, but rather by creating conditions that allow full-time and stable contract faculty to bring their best to our classrooms.