Collective bargaining with the university’s six unionized employee groups, representing 6,755 employees, is expected to occur throughout 2025. 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 update
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 collective bargaining mandate. Unions represent 73% of employees across the broader public sector, including 60% of crown corporation employees, 79.4% of the BC Public Service, 78% of the health sector, and 83.6% of the research university sector.
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/economic environment at that time. For example, the government focused the most recent 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.
As of April 14, 2025, the Province has not announced the negotiations mandate for this round of collective bargaining. Bargaining with key public-sector unions in healthcare and the BC public service, representing over 300,000 unionized employees in the BC public sector, is underway. These negotiations are expected to result in collective agreements that establish a new province-wide public-sector collective bargaining mandate, including wage increases and the term of the agreement for the rest of the public sector.
Current status of collective bargaining at UVic
Bargaining with the Faculty Association opened for the first full-day session on April 10, 2025. We have worked with the Faculty Association to identify dates to discuss non-monetary matters until the mandate is received from the provincial government. At the same time, the university is preparing to bargain with its staff unions pending receipt of the 2025 provincial collective bargaining mandate. Bargaining teams have been formed, and space is being identified.
After the province issues its public sector-wide mandate, the university will finalize and seek approval for its bargaining plans from the UVic Board of Governors and the Public Sector Employers Council. Once approved, the university will endeavor to conclude agreements with each union at the earliest opportunity.