Ontario Public Colleges Enter Conciliation with OPSEU Faculty

Toronto, October 9, 2024// The College Employer Council (CEC) has been bargaining with OPSEU, representing full-time and partial-load professors, instructors, librarians, and counsellors since July 2024. Today, the parties enter conciliation to find a path forward through the Union’s more than 200 demands. These demands would reduce the time faculty spend with students and are estimated to have a significant cost to the College sector.

Throughout the bargaining process, CEC has tried to engage the Union in an open discussion in order to find common ground and ensure stability for students and the system at a time of tremendous upheaval. Current IRCC changes are predicted to cost the sector more than $3 billion in the next two years.

Both sides have made proposals that seek to modernize how workload is assigned to teachers.  However, the cumulative impact of the Union’s demands would reduce the number of weeks a full-time professor could teach to a maximum of 29 weeks annually.

Some additional Union demands would result in the following:

• Hiring 50% more full-time teachers to deliver the current level of programming

• Hiring 233% more full-time counsellors and librarians

• A 4-hour reduction in the maximum assigned time each week for full-time teachers.
• A reduction of average teaching hours from 12.01 to 8.76 hours per week for full-time teachers

• A guaranteed six-week period of self-directed non-teaching time every year

• A 50% increase in Professional Development days

Since the last collective agreement, a workload taskforce was jointly created to review the current workload formula (last reviewed in 2011). Faculty reported a need for mode of delivery to be recognized and an increase in workload for hyflex teaching and routine out of class assistance, while also reporting a decrease in time required to complete electronically assisted evaluations.  Workload data also showed a year-over-year decline in hours for an average full-time professor to currently 12.01 hours per week in the classroom.

“Faculty are the backbone of the College sector and deserve to be recognized for their hard work and dedication to students,” said Dr. Laurie Rancourt, Chair of the Management Bargaining team. “That’s why the CEC has tabled breakthrough proposals based on data from the Flaherty workload taskforce report, adding mode of delivery into the workload formula, and an increase in preparation and evaluation time for certain modes and additionally, increases to wages and benefits.”

“While we remain optimistic that conciliation can help us find a path forward, we are also aware that the Union bargaining team has been telling its members it needs a strike mandate for months, with some locals preparing even before bargaining began in mid-July,” said Graham Lloyd, CEO, CEC. “The students and college system do not need a strike to address the Faculty Bargaining Team’s demands. We urge all academic employees to review both sets of proposals and get informed before voting in the strike vote next week. Students don’t deserve to have their semester interrupted for demands the Union bargaining team knows the CEC can never agree to.”

All proposals, and all demands from the CEC and OPSEU are published on the CEC website.

Though the 2021-2024 collective agreement has expired, it continues to remain in effect.