Collective bargaining with the university’s six unionized employee groups, representing 6,755 employees, is expected to occur throughout 2025 and the early half of 2026. This web page is a source of accurate information about the collective bargaining process and is designed to keep you informed about the state of collective bargaining at UVic.
UVic employee groups
Unions represent 95.2% of the 7,098 people employed by UVic. The remaining 4.8% include union-exempt professional and administrative support staff (1.7%) and faculty-excluded, management-excluded and executive employees (3.1%). Unionized employees are represented by:
- CUPE 917: athletic department, food services, grounds maintenance and janitorial employees, security officers and tradespeople
- CUPE 951: office employees, library assistants, technicians and childcare workers
- CUPE 4163 - Components 1 and 2: teaching assistants, lab assistants, French and English language instructors, and community leaders
- CUPE 4163 - Component 3: sessional instructors and music performance instructors
- The Faculty Association: regular faculty, limited-term faculty appointments and librarians
- The Professional Employees Association (PEA): administrative and academic professional employees
Provincial bargaining context
In 2025, 182 unions representing approximately 452,750 unionized public-sector employees in British Columbia will be renegotiating collective agreements with public-sector employers (school districts, hospitals, universities, crown corporations) under a new provincial Balanced Measures collective bargaining mandate.
Since 1993, bargaining in the broader BC public sector has been governed by negotiation mandates established by the provincial government. Past mandates have reflected the political and economic environments of the time. For example, the government focused the 2022 Shared Recovery bargaining mandate on providing a fair and reasonable offer to public-sector workers that included significant inflation protection, while ensuring that government had the resources to continue to invest in building a stronger province for everyone.
Provincial bargaining update
Last updated: Jan. 20, 2026
Bargaining continues to proceed under the provincial government’s 2025 Balanced Measures collective bargaining mandate. The BCGEU, representing 35,600 public-service employees, along with the Facilities Bargaining Association, representing 67,500 healthcare workers, have ratified four (4) year collective agreements that provide 3% general wage increases in each year of the agreement (2025 to 2028).
Keep watching this site for information about updates to the status of collective bargaining across the broader public sector. Negotiations are actively underway in many parts of the broader public sector, including healthcare, K-12, community social services, crown corporations and in the research-university sector.
Current status of collective bargaining at UVic
Last updated: Jan. 20, 2026
With those two milestone agreements in place, the provincial government has accepted the University’s bargaining plans and provided the University with approval to negotiate salary increases consistent with the 2025 Balanced Measures collective bargaining mandate.
Bargaining is underway with the Faculty Association, the PEA, CUPE 951 and Component 3 of CUPE 4163. UVic HR staff are working with the other staff unions to book dates to begin bargaining in the coming months. Please click on the above tabs for the respective unions to learn more about the status of collective bargaining for each bargaining table.
It will be our goal to conclude agreements with our unions at the earliest opportunity. Salary adjustments and retroactive payments negotiated through collective bargaining will be processed as soon as possible, once an agreement is reached and ratified. Until that occurs, please be assured that the current collective agreements remain in full effect until new agreements are negotiated and ratified by bargaining-unit members.