In accordance with the Joint Gender Equity Salary Adjustment Committee (JGESAC) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Appendix K of the MUN/MUNFA Collective Agreement (CA), in April 2021 the JGESAC submitted a Final Report to the Parties.
As noted in the Report, “The Gender Equity Fund is to be awarded as steps. With the current step value of $2142, the Fund translates to 466 steps.” This translation of the $1,000,000 fund into 466 steps was information communicated to the JGESAC at the beginning of their deliberations by the administration, and was a common understanding by both Parties. Since receiving the Final Report, on June 1, 2021, Faculty Relations communicated to MUNFA and the JGESAC that the number of steps to be awarded to female Academic Staff Members (ASMs) had been unilaterally reduced from 466 to 411 to cover overhead and administration costs of 10%. As this decision was made subsequent to receiving a Final Report by the JGESAC, and is contrary to information communicated to both the JGESAC and MUNFA at the onset of the process, MUNFA has filed an Association Grievance contesting that the administration has violated the agreed to MOU.
Additionally, as noted in the JGESAC report, as of March 2021 there were 32 female administrators formerly in the MUNFA Bargaining Unit. As the Appendix K MOU explicitly states the $1,000,000 be allocated to ASMs as defined in Clause 1.03 of the CA, MUNFA has called on the administration to provide the necessary funds (32 steps = $68,544) to ensure female administrators are not disadvantaged due to their current position outside of the Bargaining Unit. Until such a time that a female administrator returns to the Bargaining Unit, the Parties have agreed to set aside the necessary funds from the $1,000,000 fund in embargo to ensure female administrators receive a salary adjustment when they quality as per the terms of the MOU. As of October 14, the administration has not agreed to provide the necessary funds to address gender inequities in female administrators’ salaries.
MUNFA has prioritized scheduling a grievance meeting with the administration to discuss both of the above noted issues and will update our membership with any future developments.
